A SCOTTISH energy services business has fallen into administration amid rising debts in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Blair Nimmo and Geoff Jacobs of Interpath Advisory have been appointed joint administrators of GCG Shotblasting Services Limited, which operated from its bespoke Peterhead facilities for over 30 years.
The company provided critical services through protective coatings being applied to on and offshore assets, together with on-site activities at client sites, and alongside other protection and maintenance offerings.
The company had expanded its trading activities in recent years, alongside investing in research and development activities to successfully broaden its service offering.
Following a reduction in on-site work due to lockdown restrictions and the cancellation of contracts stemming from Covid-19, the company’s revenues were significantly impacted and, against a fixed cost base, losses arose which resulted in cash flow difficulties, the administrators said.
Despite a recent uptick in activity levels and efforts made by the directors to turn the position round, cash resources were not available to service ongoing commitments and increased debt levels.
"Having considered all available options and having sought to raise additional funding or investment, which ultimately could not be secured, the directors determined that an administration appointment was necessary," Interpath said.
The business could not continue to trade and "there was no option other than for the majority of the company’s 13 employees to be made redundant immediately upon appointment of the administrators".
The remaining employees have been retained for a short period to help with administrative matters.
Blair Nimmo, chief executive of Interpath Advisory, said: “Despite the best efforts of the directors and improving activity across the market, this is unfortunately another company that has been adversely impacted as a result of Covid-19 delays and debt build up.”
Geoff Jacobs, managing director at Interpath Advisory, said: “This is a disappointing outcome for a long-established family-run business; however, we will now take steps to support the workforce and look to secure a sale of the assets comprising primarily, its property, plant and machinery, well-known business name, order book, work in progress and customer list.
"Interested parties should make contact in early course.”
Pound to dollar: Plunge reflects gravity of fears
AT its record low of $1.0327 in Asian trading yesterday, the pound was down a jaw-dropping 10 cents on its close last Thursday, the day before Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unleashed a frenzy in financial markets with his mini-Budget.
The pound had on Friday following Mr Kwarteng’s “Growth Plan” – which included a slew of tax cuts and the reversal of a planned rise in corporation tax which will in aggregate cost tens of billions of pounds a year – sunk to what were then fresh 37-year lows below $1.09.
Luxury car dealer considers offer from European rival
PENDRAGON has received a fresh takeover offer from its largest shareholder valuing the group at about £400 million.
The UK group, which trades under the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone brands, described the possible cash offer of 29p per share from Sweden’s Hedin Mobility Group as “unsolicited, preliminary and highly conditional”.
Sign up for free: You can now get the briefing sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the seven-day round-up on Sunday 👇
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here