Administrators have been appointed at Westbridge, one of the UK's biggest upholstery manufacturers, which continues to trade as a buyer is sought.
Interpath's Chris Pole and Will Wright were appointed joint administrators to The Belfield Group-owned businesses Westbridge Furniture Ltd and Belfield Leisure Ltd on 23rd March.
Westbridge employs around 300 people at its base in Holywell, Flintshire, and several redundancies have already been made.
Headquartered in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and employing around 200 members of staff, Belfield Leisure is a manufacturer and supplier of soft furnishings to the UK leisure market.
Both companies were incorporated in February 2025 when the business and assets of Westbridge Furniture Designs Ltd and Belfield Furnishings Ltd were acquired, alongside other trading entities of The Belfield Group Ltd, via a pre-pack transaction.
Following the acquisition, Westbridge suffered operational disruption which had a greater impact on the business than originally anticipated, states Interpath: "This, combined with the loss of a key customer and weak trading in early 2025, placed significant pressure on cash flow.
"Separately, the trading performance of Belfield Leisure was impacted by fragile consumer confidence impacting the wider UK leisure market. This frustrated the business’ ability to return to a breakeven position, despite significant cost savings being made and a regaining of market share. As a result, Belfield also required a capital injection to manage short-term cash requirements.
"In response to these challenges, the directors of the businesses undertook an exploration of their investment and refinancing options. However, when a solvent solution could not be found, they took the difficult decision to seek the appointment of the administrators."
The joint administrators say they will continue to trade the businesses, working through certain orders in progress, while they explore options for a sale of the businesses and their assets. The majority of the companies’ employees will be retained to assist the administrators during this period, yet there has been "a limited number of redundancies" across both businesses.
Chris Pole, MD at Interpath and joint administrator, comments: “It’s been a challenging time for furniture manufacturers and retailers. Following a spike in demand during Covid-19, a period of falling sales, high interest rates, and inflation, have piled on the pressure for companies up and down the supply chain.
“While both Westbridge and Belfield Leisure had made positive progress on their respective turnaround journeys, both companies required further injections of capital. Unfortunately, and despite the best efforts of management to secure funding, this has not been possible, which has sadly resulted in the companies going into administration.
“As we start to explore options for both businesses, our immediate intention is to trade the Belfield Leisure business as a going concern, as well as maintaining operations at Westbridge for a period as we fulfil work already in progress. We’d invite any parties who may be interested in acquiring the businesses and their assets to contact us at the earliest opportunity.”
The other companies in The Belfield Group – Tetrad Furniture Ltd and Clinchplain Foam and Fibre Ltd – are not in administration, and continue to trade as normal.
Pictured: Westbridge's manufacturing facility in Holywell
