Office furniture manufacturer goes into administration after rise in home working

Bluespot Furniture, which employed 24 people, including two directors, was a long-established UK furniture manufacturer in the commercial interiors, student accommodation, build-to-rent and house building markets.

The company designed, manufactured and installed furniture from production facilities in Dewsbury.

Following a sustained decline in turnover and the sale by its landlord of its trading premises the company ceased trading, with the redundancy of its entire workforce, prior to the appointment of administrators.

The administrators are now arranging for a sale of the company’s remaining assets.

James Sleight, joint administrator and partner at PKF’s office in Leeds, said: “Unfortunately the demand for office furniture was understandably very low during Covid and is not expected to recover to pre pandemic levels.

“The company had obtained support under various government schemes during the pandemic and with low demand, rising costs and pandemic debt to repay, the directors did not feel the business was sufficiently viable to justify continued trade.”

Mr Sleight added: “Following our appointment we are now supporting employees in accessing government redundancy support and seeking to maximise realisations through a disposal of the remaining company assets and collection of its book debt ledger”

This is the second office furniture manufacturer that adminstrators from PKF GM have been involved in over recent months.

Administrators from the firm’s Leeds office were appointed to oversee the administration of Tangent Furniture in Oxfordshire on July 20 last year.

“This is the second appointment over an office furniture manufacturer we’ve had since the pandemic,” said Mr Sleight.

He added: "This sector is clearly experiencing significant challenges with the rise in hybrid and home working.”