Truck trailer maker placed in hands of receivers

Top UK trailer manufacturer Crane Fruehauf has been placed in the hands of receivers with 345 redundancies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) were today asked by the company's directors to step in as joint administrators following a series of severe losses.

Employing around 370 staff and with an annual turnover of around £37 million, Crane Fruehauf manufactured articulated lorry trailers at its site in Dereham in Norfolk.

In a statement the receivers' said that the company had been operating in an "extremely competitive marketplace" and had experienced a significant downturn in demand over the past six months. With fewer orders to chase, Crane Fruehauf was also hit by the strong pound and suffered a decline in forward orders. Margins too had come under pressure due to increases in steel prices.

Following significant trading losses, the company announced 16 redundancies in December and a further 70 in early January as management attempted to reduce costs to reflect falling levels of sales and a subsequent decline in revenue. Despite these steps and other efforts to find a solution to the company’s difficulties, including trying to find a buyer for the business, they had insufficient funds to continue to trade the business and appointed administrators today.

As a result, manufacturing at the site in Dereham will cease and 345 employees will be made redundant with immediate effect.

A skeleton staff of 25 will be retained to work with the administrators and their team.

PwC said that a separate company, Fruehauf Parts and Service Limited, which operates from South Green in Dereham, is unaffected by the administration appointment.

Stephen Oldfield, joint administrator and partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Norwich commented: “The company's employees have endured increasing uncertainty, with wages only just being paid in January and earlier rounds of redundancies affecting colleagues.

“Unfortunately, with insufficient cash to pay February’s wage bill, we could not continue to trade the business and regrettably these redundancies have had to be announced today. Efforts will be made to try and find a buyer for the business - probably in a reduced form."

It is hoped that, as a widely recognised brand, a buyer may be found for Crane Fruehauf.

(SP)