DIYWEEK.net

A few years later than all the other comments but wanted to explain further what happened.

When we entered into liquidation in 2009 we were asset rich, but cash poor. We had of plenty of assets but no cash with which to pay staff and bills with.

The main reason for this was that we were moving to a new factory and investing in custom made forging equipment. Therefore we had ceased production to move into the new factory and had invested heavily in building up finished stock to cover us for the period of the move.

Unfortunately the recession hit and all the cash was tied up as stock and not selling to generate cash. We had to pay wages, bills plus the additional cost of moving all our machinery (most machines were several tons in weight and are embedded in concrete foundations) led to no cash.

As a family it was heartbreaking decision to enter Members Voluntary Liquidation. My grandfather (second generation)and father had worked there all their lives. You could say Footprint was member of our family.

We did use the government to step in and pay the redundancy. However, much to the Civil Service's surprise (apparently this doesn't happen very often) we did fully repay the Government for all the redundancy pay that they had paid. All our staff were kept fully informed of the decision and why we had made it and what was going to happen.

When we closed the business the family still owned a lot of the assets. But it was decided to have another go, we started up smaller. When we were closing we didn't think we would re-start again so had sold off most of machinery, including our large forging equipment, to raise cash to eventually pay all our creditors and redundancy payments.

The new company is predominantly made up of old employees and we are growing.

In January 2014 we bought a larger forge and are now forging everything ourselves. We are slowly growing the business again and winning back customers who had re-sourced to Chinese or Indian made products.

As a family we learned that timing is everything and for us we got the timing wrong. When we closed we were turning ourselves around and investing in new custom made machinery, we were planning on growing not shrinking.

Thank you to all our customers who have supported Footprint as we rebuild Footprint Tools and invest in British manufacturing.

Having read all the comments below I am glad to see that the phoenix is arising from the ashes, and that business is to restart with some people getting their old jobs back. According to one comment here and many on your previous thread when Footprint went into liquidation they will have lots of support from businesses wishing to purchase the quality goods, and if those people do support Footprint, then they should do well.
My only concern is reading the less optimistic comments I have wondered about the earlier situation with redunancies for the whole company, and the re-instatement now of just a few. The reason for my doubts? Having read the Liquidation thread I see Christopher Jewitt left a comment saying watch this space.... only 5 weeks after the ALL staff were made redundant! If there had been a glimmer of hope at that stage was it necessary to put everyone on the unemployed statistics, together with loss of money, self esteem, confidence and pride?

I think it is fantastic news that one of the last UK tool manufacturers has managed to find a way to continue trading. This is despite the Governments best efforts to eradicate manufacturing of any sort in the UK with there criminal and continual lack of support. I for one will be first in line to buy my British manufactured footprint tool and suggest that the two people above do something to support these companies rather than projecting cynical views that knock them. Good luck to all at Footprint, most of us are behind you.

Not really a surprise. I wonder if it was always the plan to return with a smaller workforce. The recession, as we all know has hit many people, at the same time allowing some companies to allow a reconstruction and down sizing of employees - unfortunately for the employees concerned. Although this may not be the case here, there are companies doing so.