Paperlinx, the global paper supply company, which until this month had operations across the North of England, has announced that its Benelux company has gone into administration.
At the start of this month, the Australian-based group revealed that it was closing 14 UK sites with immediate effect, including those in Manchester, Leeds and Tyne & Wear. In total 700 employees were made redundant.
The group had requested that its shares in the Australian stock exchange were suspended until yesterday, while it “assessed the impact” of the administration on the rest of its European businesses. It had hoped to negotiate a sale of B.V. Paperlinx in the Netherlands and Belgium, but it fell through.
As a result the Benelux arm has been handed over to administrators.
“We deeply regret the impact this will have on employees and all stakeholders of the Benelux operations in the Netherlands and Belgium, but given the circumstances the commencement of of this administration process was the only option for the local Directors”, said Andy Preece, chief executive officer.
“We have been completely open and transparent about the problems in our European operations for some time but our many repeated attempts to restore profitability have failed. PaperlinX has over the past five financial years, invested substantial funds into the restructuring of the European operations, particularly in the Benelux and the UK; however it has unfortunately not been possible to effect a turnaround in performance. It is therefore no longer in the Company’s best interests to continue funding significant restructuring initiatives in the region or to support ongoing trading losses.”
The firm continues to “progress the sales or realisations” of its businesses across the rest of Europe, including Ireland, Poland, Spain and Germany.
