UPDATED: Jobs axed at Haydock drinks distributor (From St Helens Star)

Jobs axed at Haydock drinks distributor

10:57am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News

DOZENS of jobs are being axed at the local depot of a national drinks distributor after administrators were unable to find a buyer.

Thirty one employees at Waverley TBS Ltd, based at Kilbuck Lane, Haydock, were served with redundancy on Monday.

The wholesale distributor of drinks had slid into administration last week, as reported by the Star.

But any hopes of a rescue deal were slashed when the joint administrators said they were scaling down efforts to sell the business as a going concern.

Nationally, 685 employees have been made redundant.

Waverley will continue to operate with a reduced workforce of 97 employees, while the administrators begin to sell assets from the business.

Five employees will be retained in Haydock, although that is expected to be in the short term.

Bill Dawson, joint administrator and partner at Deloitte, said: “Regrettably, despite our continued efforts, we have been unable to identify a suitable buyer for the business.

“Whilst we will continue to consider offers for the sale of the business as a going concern, we will now focus on realising value from the company’s assets.

“Unfortunately, it has been necessary to make 685 redundancies at Waverley's sites across the UK. We will retain a core team of 97 employees to assist us in realising value from the company’s assets.”

In a statement, Deloitte said that administrators are working closely with Job Centre Plus to provide support and advice to employees who have been made redundant.

The Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service has put together a team to quickly approve claims for employee entitlements.

Dawson added: “We are extremely grateful to the staff and management for their support throughout this difficult time.

“We would also like to thank the Job Centre and Insolvency Service for their cooperation and help.”