One of the industry’s leading engineering companies, Herbert Engineering, has been put into administration. Established in 1972, R J Herbert Engineering Ltd is a privately owned business that employs approximately 120 workers at its site in Wisbech, and is well known as a supplier of pack house and grading equipment for vegetable and potato growers.
The administrators were appointed to R J Herbert Engineering and R J Herbert Group Ltd of Walton Highway near Wisbech, although R J Herbert Systems remains outside of the administration process.
A statement on RJ Herbert’s website said: ‘On 14 July 2016, Chris Farrington and Matt Cowlishaw, partners in Deloitte LLP, were appointed Joint Administrators of R J Herbert Engineering Limited and R J Herbert Group Limited. The Joint Administrators are taking steps to stabilise the business and preserve value, and the Companies will continue to operate while the Joint Administrators consider how this can be achieved.’ The combined turnover of the Group for year ended 31 March 2016 was approximately £11.3m.
Chris Farrington, Joint Administrator and financial advisory partner at Deloitte said: “Due to difficult market conditions in the agricultural sector, two companies have been placed into administration. We are looking for a buyer for the business and expect to trade R J Herbert Engineering for a short period. Their customers are the largest food processing and packaging companies globally. Anyone interested should contact us, and at the moment no redundancies have been announced.”
Photo: Grading potatoes, April 28th 1972. R J Herbert
