A brighter future beckons for ex-employees of a Huddersfield commercial joinery firm that fell into administration.
H W Joinery Projects, based at Meltham Mills, collapsed in July with the loss of 18 jobs after being hit by substantial bad debt.
Now a long-term customer of the collapsed firm has bought the assets of the business and created H W Specialist Joinery Ltd at the same premises on Meltham Mills Industrial Estate.
Essex-based Phelan Construction has also pledged to invest in the new company by installing new equipment and setting up a training academy to secure its long-term future. It has also developed a business plan setting targets to turn H W Specilist Joinery into a £5m to £10m-turnover company in the next three years.
The new company is headed by husband and wife Andy and Jane Mundy, who were directors of H W Joinery Project Ltd.
Mrs Mundy said the new firm already has a 13-strong team and is looking to recruit at least five to 10 additional joiners by the end of this year.
She said it had been hoped to re-engage all the employees of H W Joinery Projects Ltd, but several of them had already found aternative work.
She said: “It was one of the worst times of my life and certainly not something I would like to go through again. But something good has come out of it.”
Mrs Mundy said: “We were working on a large casino project in Leeds at the time of the administration and the customer has come in and bought the assets, employed my husband and I and the same management team as well as some of the joiners.
“They want us to be the best joinery company we can be. Their vision is for us to be a £5m-turnover company in three years.”
She said: “We have got an awful lot of support from the construction company. It’s an exciting time and we have significant opportunities. It has rubbed off onto the staff who are really excited about prospects going forward.”
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H W Joinery Ltd, based at Meltham Mills Industrial Estate, Meltham Mills, carried out joinery projects for shops, bars and hotels as well as private clients. Administrators were called in after the firm’s directors decided to close the company as a direct result of a large main contractor disputing a significant debt.
Keiran O’Phelan, managing director of Phelan Construction, said it was “unfortunate that others failed to treat H W with the respect required in terms of general trading” which had caused them some business difficulties.
He said: “We are very pleased to be able to invest in a new H W which I believe will be a fantastic joinery business by the time we have finished developing it. It will produce some wonderful employment opportunities for established joiners and also as part of our local H W training academy, which will look to take on three apprentices a year from local schools.
“There is no shortage of work and no shortage of opportunities. There are some great people there – great management and great people on the shopfloor. They just need the right business partner and we have no dioubt we will make a success of it.”
