More than 90 jobs to be axed at biscuit manufacturer

By Gwen Ridler

- Last updated on GMT

More than 90 jobs are to be axed at Rivington Biscuits
More than 90 jobs are to be axed at Rivington Biscuits

Related tags Euro United states dollar

More than 90 jobs at biscuit manufacturer Rivington Biscuits are to be axed, after the falling value of the pound plunged the company into administration.

Joint administrators Russell Cash and Ben Woolrych, partners at FRP Advisory, said they had no viable option than to announce the redundancy of 99 staff.

The remaining 24 staff at the company will assist the administrators with ongoing trading to fulfill current orders in the new year.

Rivington faced challenging trading conditions over the past year, resulting in significant pressure on profit margins and cash flow, said the administrators.

The problems were compounded by the sharp decline in the value of the pound against the euro, claimed FRP.

31-year low against the US dollar

The value of the pound plummeted to a 31-year low against the US dollar, following the UK’s shock decision to leave the EU in June.

Cash said: “A sustained deterioration in trading conditions and significant additional pricing costs since the summer following the sharp fall in the value of the pound, left the business facing unsustainable cash-flow pressure.

“Rivington Biscuits continues to trade through administration but with a reduced staff base in order to fulfil current orders into the New Year.”

The joint administrators are planning discussions with key customers and suppliers. Parties interested in acquiring the business or parts of it are asked to contact the firm.

‘Difficult decision’

“We have had to take the difficult decision of making a large number of redundancies and our immediate priority is to assist those staff who have lost their job to make timely claims with the Redundancy Payments Service,” ​added Cash.

Rivington currently employs 123 staff at its two factories in Wigan and Harderwijk, The Netherlands.

The company is best known for making a range of wafer biscuits, including the popular pink wafer biscuits made for supermarket own-label and also sold under the ‘Pink Panther’ brand.

Meanwhile, the sale of a West Midlands bacon producer has saved the jobs of 13 employees, after the company entered liquidation – partly due to rising costs caused by the UK’s Brexit vote.

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