Staffordshire, UK-based Fletcher Products Limited is to close after 40 years of trading.
Staffordshire, UK-based Fletcher Products Limited is to close after 40 years of trading. The business, which specialises in fibreglass moulding for sportsboats and components for the automotive industry, had employed 65 people at its site in Burntwood.
Receivers from KPMG LLP (UK) were called in on January 29 after the company experienced trading difficulties.
Mark Orton, joint receiver from KPMG LLP (UK) said: “It is with regret that we have to close this business. The company had experienced a number of trading difficulties and after reviewing them carefully, a decision was made to cease trading.”
The company was bought out of administrative receivership in March 2002 by the current management but ongoing trading difficulties have resulted in the closure of the business.
All 65 employees have been made redundant.
It marks the final chapter in a troubled twelve months for the boatbuilder which was placed into receivership in January 2002 after it failed to secure extra finance to keep it afloat. Three months later glass reinforced plastics fabricator Franton appeared to offer the boatbuilder a lifeline, buying the business as a going concern.
The Fletcher sportsboat and its Dell Quay dory ranges stretch from 4.3m-7.6m (14ft-25ft). Fletcher was also a major supplier of industrial mouldings, producing such things as coach bodies, wind-generator parts and simulator capsules. Boatbuilding accounted for around 30 per cent of its undisclosed turnover.
