Historic Birmingham manufacturer Thomas Walker is back in business after being rescued from administration and split into two parts.
The Kings Norton firm, which is best known for producing metal fastenings to the clothing industry and dates back to 1867, went into administration in April after orders were hit badly by the recession.
But the two halves of the firm are trading again after the former PLC’s directors arranged twin MBOs.
The stamping side of the business – now known as TG Stamping – is under the control of directors led by John Lomer, the former finance director of Thomas Walker.
And the remainder of the business, including the part that worked in the Far East, is trading again under the control of former sales and marketing director David Jackson as Thomas Walker Global. Mr Lomer’s bid, which also involved former directors Vic Ensor, Adrian Goodman, Jon Norton and Emma Kelly, was backed by the Thomas Gibbins trust, a Victorian charity set up to support ex-workers of the company in its early years, when it was known as the Birmingham Battery and Metal Company.
The Thomas Gibbins trust bought the buildings that Mr Lomer’s side of the organisation work from, and lends its initials to the new company – TG Stamping was known as TW Stamping when it was covered by the Thomas Walker umbrella.
Mr Lomer said there had been a lot of interest in Thomas Walker when the firm went into administration but some who expressed an interest in buying were looking to dismantle the company.
He said he could see a better future for TG Stamping, even though the recession was still putting pressure on orders.
He said: “Hopefully most of the pain is behind the firm now because what happened was you had what was always a very small PLC, and there are a lot of costs associated with listing that are unavoidable.
“Last year, in November, business just fell off a cliff. We were keeping the customers but the orders just dried up. TG Stamping, as it now is, is a much better proposition, so it can live on a lower volume of business than it could as part of the group.”
TG Stamping will carry on without losing any more staff – the number is at 40 – after some were made redundant during the administration move.
Mr Lomer said: “The name doesn’t carry on but it’s nice to see the business still going. It’s a good solid business making niche products, and it’s ideally suited to the current environment – it’s not making mass-produced stuff, so you don’t have the same competition from the Far East. The reaction from staff has been wonderful, they have always supported the buy-out, without the support of the staff there wouldn’t have been a firm to buy back.”
David Jackson said he was pleased to see the Thomas Walker name carry on at Thomas Walker Global, and said the splitting up of the company had been a natural progression, given their different roles.
As well as UK-based parts of the business, he bought the Thomas Walker SEA office in Hong Kong as a going concern – as it had not been put into administration with the rest of the firm.
“Our customer bases were completely different,” he said. “The two businesses operate in completely different markets and therefore being run as a single business was not really justified.”
