The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Pressure is growing for a renowned furniture manufacturer to be put into administration in order for staff and ex-employees to be paid what they are owed.
South Holland and The Deepings MP John Hayes has been called upon to make urgent representations for Lloyd Loom of Spalding to be wound up.
The firm’s factory in Wardentree Lane, Pinchbeck, was emptied under the instruction of company director Anthony Draxler just before Christmas, with production machinery then shipped to Romania.
Staff who have been temporarily laid off say they are owed up to 14 weeks’ wages. And some ex-workers claim agreed redundancy terms have not been settled.
One employee said: “We are in an extremely difficult position. Until the company is legally wound up we cannot receive our back pay, holiday pay and redundancy pay from the government.”
Mr Hayes told The Voice he is ready to take action, saying: “My anxiety is to protect the interests of the employees.
“The current circumstances [of the business] are that it’s not viable or he wouldn’t have moved his stuff out and disappeared. That doesn’t mean that these people don’t deserve a fair deal.
“I shall be writing to see if we can put the company into administration with a view of then getting the people the money they are owed.
“I’m not interested in giving succour to anyone who is not treating his employees fairly.”
He added: “Lloyd Loom is a good British brand. It’s sad that the current owner has let it wither on the vine.”
Mr Draxler told The Voice the plan to move production abroad was “no secret”, but had been accelerated by the actions of landlord and former Lloyd Loom owner Mike Walker, who, he claimed, “wants to do the business himself”.
Mr Draxler, who acquired the firm in 2013, said: “Everything has gone because it just wasn’t possible to work with that landlord.
“It wasn’t commercially viable to have someone who creates such disruption in charge of the lease.”
He added: “Various people have been made redundant over the past two years. They have all been paid except for the most recent. Three were made redundant and stage payments have been agreed.
“As for the existing staff, we haven’t come to a decision yet because if we find alternative premises we may be able to employ them in other roles.
“Some of them are owed back pay – not dramatic amounts – but that will get sorted out this month.”
Mr Walker said the business was turning over £4million with a profit of £250,000 under his ownership and claimed Mr Draxler had buildings insurance withdrawn last October due to the hazardous state of the premises.
Mr Walker said: “[The demise] is absolutely nothing to do with us. We have bent over backwards to help the owner stay in place, spending a considerable amount of our own money to do so.
“The only fault for this fiasco is with the owners and managers of the company.”
Several firms, including Pinchbeck ones, are owed money and Lloyd Loom Furniture Ltd – a subsidiary of Lloyd Loom of Spalding – has a CVA (payments to creditors over a fixed period while allowing it to continue trading).
Mr Draxler’s comments that some of the staff are “owed back pay – not dramatic amounts” is nothing but insulting! The man lives in a 4 million pound house in North London and owes tens of thousands of pounds to staff who will probably never receive a penny from him ever again. He bought the company without actually paying for it so he could destroy it and run off with the assets.