07.12.2016

Lloyds British Testing in administration

UK-based lifting equipment specialist Lloyds British Testing has appointed an administrator. The company - headquartered in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands - operates across 12 locations in the UK, employing around 200. It is continuing to trade as normal under the control of the administrator while discussions take place with interested parties regarding a sale or rescue plan.

Its main trading activity is the inspection, certification and repair of lifting and rigging equipment. There are also further trading divisions covering the manufacture of lifting equipment, provision of training services and sale of spare parts. Its lifting engineering services includes inspection, testing, NDT, operator training, design and manufacture and equipment sales.

The company is more than 200 years old having been established in 1812 as the Staffordshire Public Chain & Anchor Testing Company. It also entered the access rental market around 2000 but decided to quit the market in 2005, selling its 150 unit fleet to AJ Access.

The company says it has experienced falling revenues and cost pressures in the last financial year attributable to both external factors such as the decline in overseas markets and oil and gas price volatility, along with internal factors such as the cost of consolidating and restructuring UK operations. These factors combined creating cash flow pressures which have led to the appointment of the joint administrators Michael Denny, David Baxendale and Matthew Hammond. PricewaterhouseCoopers will act as data processor on their instructions.
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Lloyds British main activity is the inspection, certification and repair of lifting equipment.

Vertikal Comment

In the past 16 years or so Lloyds British has made several acquisitions and gone through a number of restructuring and reorganisations, expanding and then contracting. It had appeared to have settled down and found its place in the market. But was probably finished off by the cut backs in the offshore market and increased competition.

The business and its assets have a real value and should appeal to either one of its competitors, or an overseas buyer looking to enter the UK market and wanting to acquire a fantastic brand name, Watch this space.