Around 300 Midland jobs are at risk after a luxury boat and yacht maker was forced to call in administrators.
Graham Bushby and Guy Mander of Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery have been appointed as joint administrators of Kidderminster based Sealine International.
The company made a £4 million pre-tax loss on a turnover of about £33 million in the year to December 2011, according to the latest available accounts.
Frank Shepherd of Baker Tilly said: “We are inviting offers for parts of or the whole of the business and we hope to contact employees as soon as possible but regret that significant redundancies are likely.”
Established in 1972 by Tom Murrant, Sealine became one of the so-called ‘Big Four’ British yards following strong growth throughout the 1990s.
Sealine was bought for an undisclosed sum in August 2011 by US private equity investors Oxford Investment Group from giant US leisure products company Brunswick.
But trading conditions have remained difficult, with Sealine’s latest filed accounts showing a 9.5 per cent decline in turnover from 2010 to 2011.
Earlier in April, Sealine appointed KPMG to handle a search for new investment, which was widely interpreted as a search for a buyer.
Despite early optimism that a company or group of individuals would make an offer for the yard, none was forthcoming.
Mr Bushby added: “We appreciate that there will be great uncertainty among staff and we will endeavour to update them at the earliest opportunity.
“We will also be working to maximise recoveries for the company’s creditors, which includes the sale of plant and recovery of monies owed to the business.”
