AN award-winning firm providing pain relief products has gone into administration.
Emley-based business The Natural Wheat Bag Company – which won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise and hosted a visit by Prince Andrew – is in the hands of administrators from Sheffield-based Hamiltons insolvency practitioners.
The appointment was confirmed at the High Court in Leeds.
Joint administrators Adrian Graham and Phil Booth are now handling the affairs of the company, which has its operations at Emley Business Park.
A spokesman for the administrators refused to comment on the background to the administration or the company’s circumstances at this stage.
The Natural Wheat Bag Company was formed by managing director Sue Grant. She had discovered the pain relief properties of heated wheat bags when she was pregnant in New Zealand.
When she couldn’t find similar products in the UK she began making her own wheat bags. They are heated in a microwave oven and used to bring relief from back pain, muscle tension and stomach aches.
The company reported turnover of £1m in 2002 and at one stage employed more than a dozen people at its 5,000sq ft unit in Emley.
It supplied hundreds of customers, including retailers Body Shop, John Lewis and Virgin Cosmetics.
The firm extended its product range to include items such as pain relief pillows and the Hug Me Better Bear, a soft toy designed to comfort poorly children.
The firm received the Queen’s Award in 2004 and received a visit from Prince Andrew in 2005.
Among its other successes The Natural Wheat Bag Company won the Gift of the Year Award in 2002 and was runner-up in the regional finals of the British Small Business Champion Awards, also in 2002.
