The well-known production facility of glasshouse-grown lettuce and basil producer Madestein UK Ltd at Leythorne Nurseries, Chichester, West Sussex, and its associated company, Fresh Willow Ltd, has gone on the market for an undisclosed sum through Savills.
Both companies went into administration in April, owing considerable sums to major industry suppliers.
In their statement of proposals released in June, joint administrators Steve Baluchi and Philip Armstrong of FRP Advisory Trading said the companies had not been profitable for a number of years, and had relied on financial support from the directors and creditor forbearance in order to survive.
Among the factors they attribute to the cause of the insolvency are the companies’ inability to sufficiently upscale operations to benefit from economies of scale, and the significant debts to NatWest and to energy supplier Total which had resulted in the threat of disconnection.
The administrators said the overall strategy is to continue trading through to the beginning of October to take advantage of the summer months while the companies’ business and assets are marketed. However, unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive a dividend at present from either company.
Madestein was set up in 1982 by Peter and Tineke Zwinkels and Nic and Rowena Vrijland. Twenty years later Mr and Mrs Zwinkels took the business over and were joined by their son Jonathan.
The nursery features 2.68ha of glasshouses on 3.33ha site, currently set up for deep-flow hydroponic production. The company had endeavored to expand but a planning application for 21ha of glasshouses on a nearby site at Almodington was refused in 2012 and a subsequent appeal was unsuccessful. Permission was achieved, however, for a more recent application for 3.45ha of glasshouses at Tangmere Airfield, in 2021.