More detail is slowly emerging about the collapse of Servis UK in Birmingham.
The struggling company called in the receivers after the parent company, Antonio Merloni, entered into effective administration under the Italian Marzano’s Law earlier this month which allows the company to continue to trade but protected from its creditors.
About 150 employees were based at the site before the company began outsourcing work such as storage and transportation. Staff have been shed steadily over the last few weeks and months.
Currently it appears that only security guards remain on site.
Administrator Anthony Barrell said: “After the bankruptcy of its parent company, directors had no choice but to appoint administrators.
“The company had been in the process of outsourcing its functions and by the time we came in on the 17th, there were no more than 50 employees still there.
“In the weeks and months running up to now there have been some redundancies and the end of this year, everything was going to be outsourced anyway.”
Once one of the biggest employers in the region, Servis UK Ltd had been reduced down to supplying spare parts and dealing with repairs for the Antonio Merloni Branch, which has now moved to Waterloo Street, in Birmingham.
Mr Barrell said Servis UK Ltd did not own the property at the site in Darlaston Road, which is owned by a company called Servis Property Ltd, which concurs with other reports from the likes of ERT.
Servis UK also do not hold the Servis brand name either, that is owned by the Antonio Merloni group.
Plans for 200 plus homes at the site have been lodged with Walsall Council.
This afternoon, after a series of meetings all day, it would appear that GB DAR who provided much of the service on behalf of Servis UK may well have entered administration as well. The company cannot currently be reached for spares or service with phone lines not being answered.
Further information on this will be discussed in the trade forums as usual.
+++ UPDATE +++
It has been confirmed that GB DAR have entered into administration this afternoon.