Major manufacturer that supplies railway operators suddenly closes after 50 years as over 30 staff made redundant

The Sun

28-05-2025

A MAJOR manufacturer that supplies railway operators has suddenly closed after 50 years.
A key update was issued after the employer made all of its staff redundant and began a fire sale of its assets.
3
3
Manufacturer Dale (Mansfield) Limited appointed administrators in October last year.
However all 34 employees at the company, which was established in the early 1970s, were made redundant after the business failed to find a purchaser or investor.
Administrators from Leonard Curtis have been selling off the business ' assets since they were appointed, but newly released information show it is now shutting down entirely.
Documents recently filed with Companies House show Dale's former headquarters has now been sold to haulage firm Maurice Hill Transport Limited for £1.2 million, reports Nottingham Post.
The property is based on a three-acre site and is divided into two main buildings, both with manufacturing and office accommodation space.
The money raised by its sale will be used to pay the company's creditors, including Lloyds Bank and HMRC.
Its equipment and stock has also been sold off by the administrators, who revealed in financial documents that up to this point more than £62,000 had been raised by selling scrap metal and other materials from the closed factory.
Basford-based auctioneer John Pye Auctions was appointed to sell some of the company's other items and raised £194,653 in total from sales of furniture, cars, and machinery.
Administrators had been told Dale's intellectual property could sell for as much as £80,000.
But sadly the administrators said: "customer interest in the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) has been disappointing thus far" and that it was unlikely to hit this sum.
Scottish firm goes bust after plunging into administration
The firm's managers said it expected Lloyds, HMRC, and priority creditors - like former staff - would be repaid in full.
The taxman had claimed £282,430 from the business, while employee-related claims totalled £47,625.
Mansfield is in north Nottinghamshire and has a proud history of coal mining and textiles industries.
The firm's website said its mining and oil rig equipment had been used in the Caspian Sea, Sardinia, Azerbaijan, the Gulf of Mexico, and in South Wales.
However, following the decline of the UK mining industry, Dale's diversified into other industries including manufacturing hydraulic cylinders.
What does going into administration mean?
WHEN a company enters into administration, all control is passed to an appointed administrator.
The administrator has to leverage the company's assets and business to repay creditors any outstanding debts.
Once a company enters administration, a "moratorium" is put in place which means no legal action can be taken against it.
Administrators write to your creditors and Companies House to say they've been appointed.
They try to stop the company from being liquidated (closing down), and if it can't it pays as much of a company's debts from its remaining assets.
The administrator has eight weeks to write a statement explaining what they plan to do to move the business forward.
This must be sent to creditors, employees and Companies House and invite them to approve or amend the plans at a meeting.
A Notice of Intention is used to inform concerning parties that a company intends to enter administration.
It is a physical document which is submitted to court, usually by directors aiming to prevent a company from being liquidated.
Like with a standard administration process, a Notice of Intention stops creditors from taking out any legal action over a company while they try and rectify the business.
Dale's website explained it had worked with Eurostar, which operates international train services between Paris, London, Amsterdam and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel.
Richard Pinder, director of restructuring and insolvency at Leonard Curtis, said last year: 'The company ran a marketing campaign last year to find a purchaser or investor to take the business forward which unfortunately was unsuccessful.
"Upon my instruction to advise the company, it was clear that its financial and operational position was such that there was no realistic prospect of avoiding a cessation of trade.
"And there was insufficient working capital or work in progress to support continued trade, even in the immediate short term.
'We are currently assisting the Redundancy Payments Service in dealing with the processing and payment of employee claims for redundancy and their other entitlements."
Mr Pinder added that it was "uncertain" if unsecured creditors, such as companies owed money by Dale, would get much money back through the administration.