Following the administration of Woodberry Bros and Haines Ltd, a family-run Somerset furniture business, ES Group, has been appointed to dispose of some of the company’s assets.
Woodberry Bros and Haines Ltd had traded from Highbridge in Somerset since 1949, employing approximately 175 people from the area in the manufacture of domestic furniture with brands including Caxton furniture, Bath cabinets and Woodberry bathrooms.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP were appointed as administrators of the business on 2nd July 2014, but has been unable to find a buyer for the business. In order to recoup funds for the company’s creditors, it has instructed specialist asset consultant ES Group to sell off the company’s remaining stock, machinery and production lines.
Three separate sales are being conducted to realise the optimum value for the assets – a sale of the company’s product stock will commence in the coming weeks, with a private treaty sale commencing in late August for the 12 main production lines to a worldwide catalogue of potential buyers. Finally, an online auction of the wider plant and equipment will conclude in early November with a large quantity of woodworking machinery amongst the lots being put under the hammer.
Simon Cornelius-Light, divisional director in ES Group’s Machinery & Business Assets team for the South-west, says: “By marketing the assets to different groups of potential buyers and via different means, some with an international reach, we hope to realise the maximum possible sum. We are confident that assets from a business of the standing of Woodberry Bros and Haines Ltd will attract interest from the international furniture manufacturing industry.”
For further information on any of the sales, contact the ES Group on 0117 927 3454.
