Bawtry Carbon: More than 100 jobs lost as firm put into administration

Bawtry Carbon, in Austerfield, has gone into administration

More than 100 jobs have been lost at a Doncaster-based manufacturer.

Bawtry Carbon, in Austerfield, which makes carbon cathode blocks for the aluminium smelting sector, was placed into administration on Wednesday.

The move came after recent efforts to sell the business had failed.

Administrator Chris Petts said external factors meant the business was "not in a financial position to continue trading", with the majority of its 105 employees made redundant as a result.

He said: "Our immediate priority is to provide support to all the employees impacted by the administration and are providing support for affected staff in making applications to the Redundancy Payments Service.

"We will continue to update all stakeholders regularly while this process unfolds."

The company had been backed by private equity firm Enact since 2019.

Chris Cormack, a partner at Enact, said: "We are naturally disappointed not to have led an ultimately successful turnaround of Bawtry Carbon."

He said that despite committing "significant capital" factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine had "been felt throughout the aluminium smelting industry".

Mr Petts added: "Despite the company's niche manufacturing presence within the EU and strong customer relationships, the severe impact of recent external pressures combined with the credit failure of a key customer meant that it was not in a financial position to continue trading."