Wadkin in administration

[ProShop]

Word on the street is One of Britains longest running woodworking machine companies Wadkin has gone into Administration.

A shame really but I suspect the buyers/wolves will be queuing up to buy the spares & service division.

 

[Max Power]

Shame to hear that, guess its another chiwanese nail in the coffin of British industry. To think we were once the workshop of the world.

 

[Chris Knight]

I think the Wadkin of today is actually only doing spares and imports anyway. IIRC the real company selling big iron disappeared a few years ago - bought out by management I think.

 

[ProShop]

I think the Wadkin of today is actually only doing spares and imports anyway. IIRC the real company selling big iron disappeared a few years ago - bought out by management I think.

They were selling serious machines also, mainly Moulders & various Grinders.
They had/have some very impressive facilities at Bardon.

 

[Escudo]

The ongoing decline in manufacturing in this country is extremely saddening.

 

[Bean]

Sorry but Chris is right, there was only the service and spares division left, the factory closed 5 or 6 years ago. I know someone who used to work in the R&D department and he left when the plant closed. Any new machines where imports from Italy or the usual chiwanise suspects I think :?

Yes they used to make some very interesting machines and very good ones but fell foul of cheap imports and machines that didn't wear out.

 

[lugo35]

sad to hear, all the manufacturing will be gone very soon. all we do in this country is sell insurance!!!!

 

[Green]

yep insurance, call centres and IT...

Sad

 

[Max Power]

With all the floods this year we could always plant paddy fields. The Chiwanese could buy the rice,as they're probably too busy building machinery to grow it themselves

 

[ProShop]

Sorry but Chris is right, there was only the service and spares division left, the factory closed 5 or 6 years ago.
.

No offense but your wrong.
Wadkin were selling moulders & grinders etc from their impressive facilities at Bardon, and not doing to badly at one stage since their reincarnation, it makes no difference were they came from, most companies source around the world these days. (Some companies have been doing that for more years than I care to remember) or have manufactured items under licence, and of course the servicing and spares as I mentioned in my post above.

Of course all this is a far cry from their heydays, but it's still sad news day .

 

[Bean]

Erm........ No I'm not
Wadkins were bought out again in the early/mid 90's and the manufacturing plant in leicester closed in the early 00's that was in the end the only manfacturing plant in the UK. leaving only the servicing section based at the rear of the old manufacturing plant. Gone were the days of the late 70's and early 80's when wadkins was expanding. After the closure I bought some of the machinery from the plant for the company i work for and have driven past it on my daily commute for 3 years, its now units.

ahh just found this

Wenlock Machine Tools, based in Leicester, UK, acquired the assets and production inventory of Wadkin in mid-1991. Its first new machine emerged in 1992, then in late 1993, Wenlock announced its intention to expand the former Wadkin product range. Some of the machining centers are being built for Wenlock by Eumach in Taiwan. Both companies report growing inquiry levels.

I am not sure what the Barden setup is or was, but I am sure all the machinery is/was badged and forign made.

 

[Kane]

yep insurance, call centres and IT...

Sad

Hey I work in IT :shock:

 

[ProShop]

Bean
No offence, I think you've missed the point I was making about your comment about Wakin only selling parts & service.

The bit you mention about Leicester and before is well documented history which I know all about. I researched the British woodworking manufacturing industry at uni in great detail for a Phd.

When all the dust & fallout had finally settled Wadkin moved from Leicester and as you rightly say it's now industrial units etc) to purpose built facilites at Bardon (I've been there many times & very impressive they are too)and started selling mainly Moulders & Grinders etc as well as spares & service operation, they also did very well in providing major woodworking manufacturers toolroom solutions which is very big business today, although extremely competitive.

Sure, as I mentioned in my previous posts they sourced them from around the world and forged alliances etc with other companies to manufacture to Wadkins spec at the time & re badge of course as is the common practice these days. I never mentioned they did not manufacture machines etc these days.

.My only point in my earlier posts was to clarify that Wadkin were not just a spares & service company in their later years thats all I was trying to say .

Heard on the grapevine again today there are a few interested parties
talking to the Administrators, watch this space

 

[kevinr]

A quick trawl through Companies House WeCHeck service shows a number of Wadkin companies. Two appear to be non-trading companies which therefore may just own assets or other companies. Another is the manufacturing company. Unless I am reading the pages wrong all of these were due to file accounts by 31/10/2006 which would presumably be for the year to 31/12/2005. This is an unpleasant position to be in. Either their eyes are badly off the ball or something bad lies behind it.

Interestingly one of the other "wadkins" on Co-House's list is still shown as in receivership from 2001 and I assume was part of the original liquidation.

 

[ProShop]

It's going to be interesting to see from the administrators the financial details.

IMHO I wouldn't read too much into overdue accounts, big & small companies do it all the time, you can click on a few firms on that particular page and see quite a few are overdue etc. the trick for companies is to file the annual return on time (to avoid the fine) to which has been done by Wadkin.

Companies house website is not all that up to date either in my experience. But as you say Kevin it doesn't look good when you see overdue accounts in capital letters .

One could write a book on this debacle over the last 20 odd years.

 

[kevinr]

I've had problems with accounts due to dodgy accountants - so I know what you mean. But they've had just under 22 months to produce those. For a going concern especially if they are importing or manufacturing thats not too good. I'd have thought you'd need the accounts just to stay on top of lead times and cash flow. Assuming they import by ship from china (like everyone else) then they have really harsh cash flow. Pay china - wait months for ship - send out product to dealers - eventually get paid...

If they know the figures (for the trading company) and have not filed them they cannot have much good news in them - if they don't know them - eek!

The best reasonable explanations I can think of would be if there was really big dispute over the real numbers due to say - import duty arguments or insurance on a lost shipment. Then no estimated accounts could ever be fair.