600 jobs at risk as butchery firm Crawshaw enters administration

The group, which operates from 42 high street stores and 12 factory outlets, said discussions with investors to raise cash had failed and that it does not have sufficient resources to carry out a restructuring.

The firm announced last Friday that its board was considering a number of remedial actions, including raising additional funding through an equity capital raising, in order to address the key issues it had identified with the company.

However the board’s efforts to raise capital to address its issues have not proved fruitful and as such has appointed administrators to seek buyers for its business and its assets.

It is not known at this stage what impact will be felt in terms of the ongoing operations of its stores.

A statement to investors read: “The Company does not have sufficient cash resources to effect the required restructuring of the business.

“In the light of the above and the operational and financial uncertainty which the Company now faces, in order to protect both shareholders and creditors, the Board has taken the decision to place the Company into administration and intends to appoint administrators shortly with the purpose of seeking buyers for the Group’s business and assets on a going concern basis.

“As a result, the Board announces it has requested a suspension of trading in its shares on AIM with effect from 7.30am on 31 October 2018.”

ccording to its latest set of results for the six months to July 29, the group posted revenue of £21.6 million and a pre-tax loss of £1.7 million.

Food mogul Ranjit Boparan holds a near 30% stake in the business and his 2 Sisters Food Group also supplies Crawshaw.

The “chicken king” - so-called because of 2 Sisters’ large-scale involvement in the poultry trade - is also an adviser to the board.