Westland Horticulture has acquired William Sinclair and has immediately taken the business out of administration.
The purchase includes the Ellesmere Port facility and additional manufacturing assets; Sinclair's brands, J. Arthur Bowers, New Horizon, Growing Success and Deadfast, as well as Silverperl and professional growing media businesses.

The news follows an announcement by William Sinclair that it needed funding. A statement by Sinclair today explained: "On May 26 the company announced that it would face a funding shortfall during the summer and on June 30 the company announced that 'significant progress towards a funding solution is needed in the next few weeks and there can be no certainty as to the outcome of any of these discussions'.

"The Board has exhausted a thorough process including an attempted share placing, transactions with trade and financial parties and disposals of individual assets but has been unsuccessful in obtaining the required additional funding.

"Therefore the Board has no alternative but to place the company into administration and accordingly has appointed Will Wright and Mark Orton of KPMG Restructuring as Joint Administrators. We understand that the joint administrators have sold the business and assets of Sinclair Horticulture today to Westland Horticulture."

Westland said the acquisition will bring "much-needed stability to William Sinclair's business and brands starting from today". Westland's focus in the short term will be to connect with all Sinclair customers, as well as to push forward with 2016 product plans, due to be launched in September.

Westland Horticulture managing director Edward Conroy said of the news: "We have always believed that Sinclair's is an important part of our industry's landscape, and we are fully committed to maintaining this for the long term.

"Sinclair's is fundamentally a good business and our focus is to work together with all customers in the professional and consumer sectors to make the transition simple and clear to all involved. It is imperative that over the coming days we keep our lines of communication open with customers and stakeholders.

"Westland is focused on delivering a strong future for Sinclair's business, infrastructure and brands, which can only thrive from being part of the Westland family. For now it's very much business as usual for all concerned."