Decision expected soon on factory site
That was said yesterday by Alan Poulton, chief executive of the John G Russell (Transport) Group – the parent company of the freezer firm.
“No final decision has been made regards the premises. We are still looking at alternatives and talking to Highlands and Islands Enterprise with the intention of doing something with the building. No decision has been made yet but it will be sooner rather than later,” he told the John O’Groat Journal.
The freezer factory at Murrayfield is part of a 55-acre site owned by Russell’s. It currently has some other firms as tenants and at one time it was thought it could be turned into a business park.
Mr Poulton also confirmed that Russell’s had a 43 per cent fall in profits in the last financial year after having to write off £962,000 debts owed to Icetech by electrical retail giant Comet. It accounted for about half of the freezer firm’s production but went into administration in November 2012.
The latest accounts for the group show it made £934,000 pre-tax profits in the year to March, compared with £1,642,000 in the preceding year following the cashflow problems at Icetech.
The freezer firm went into liquidation in April with the loss of 70 jobs, five months following the collapse of Comet, after efforts to find a buyer proved unsuccessful.
Icetech also provided freezers for Argos and Currys and other markets but never recovered from the loss of the Comet order despite support from its parent firm.
“We worked very hard to try and turn Icetech around but the demise of Comet had a major impact on the firm, despite our efforts to find a way of keeping the business alive,” said Mr Poulton.
“It was extremely unfortunate when Comet went under as it left Icetech with a bad debt of over £900,000. We tried to keep the business going and support the firm but in the end could not sustain such a loss,” he stated.
“It was galling as we had done so much over a considerable period of time to turn the firm around. The staff produced high-quality work and top-class products and what happened was no fault of theirs,” said Mr Poulton.
John G Russell took over the former Norfrost business in 2005 and invested over £8 million over the years. The investment was required to finance working capital and factory redevelopment. But Icetech faced increasing challenges from EU regulations on waste recycling and energy rating and a lack of import controls on non-compliant goods. It also faced significant competition from countries such as China.
The Norfrost name and Icetech’s equipment and designs were subsequently bought from liquidators by Ebac in July in a seven-figure deal. Ebac planned to move production to County Durham in north-east England.