Heywood Williams in administration but offer tabled from new group

Oct 21 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Heywood Williams calls in administrators

The firm made pre-tax losses of £9.6m in the first half of this year on revenues of £88.5m. But debts totalled £47.6m following a string of acquisitions.

Heywood Williams supplies handles, hinges and locks for doors and windows in the UK and Europe as well as building products, floorcoverings and air flow systems for manufactured housing and recreational vehicles in North America.

HEYWOOD Williams has had a rollercoaster ride over the past few years.

The company, which was based at the former Waverley School in Edgerton for many years, was enjoying healthy profits just four years ago when its products were in demand for rebuilding work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

But four years on, the company is counting the cost of the credit crunch, which saw the collapse of the US housing market and the decline of construction markets on both sides of the Atlantic.

Swamped by debt – partly taken on to fund a string of takeovers – Heywood lost £9.5m in the first half of the year.

It is a far cry from the company’s heyday when charismatic chairman Ralph Hinchliffe undertook a series of takeovers and disposals in the 1980s to focus its operations on manufacturing windows, doors and building and plumbing products.

His successes included one of the biggest ever takeovers by a Huddersfield-based firm when the company paid £58m for a Cheshire-based plastic windows and doors business.

Today, Heywood Williams distributes door accessories such as handles, hinges and locks across the UK, Ireland, western Europe and Scandinavia.

In the USA, it supplies plumbing products, floorcoverings and air flow systems for the prefab housing sector.