PwC administrators make 156 redundancies at Manganese Bronze
PwC administrators lay off staff at London black cab manufacturer just days after their appointment
PWC ADMINISTRATORS to London black cab manufacturer Manganese Bronze have made more than 100 redundancies just days after their appointment.
Matthew Hammond, Tony Barrell, Ian Green and Mike Jervis, all in the restructuring division at PwC, were appointed joint administrators this week.
Following their appointment, more than half of the 277-strong workforce have been made redundant, with the administrators letting 156 of them go.
Manganese had a turnover of £75m and employed three people overseas, 176 in its head office and manufacturing site in Coventry, with the remaining 99 employees spread across dealerships in London, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh.
A statement from the administrators said of the 176 head office staff, 99 have been made redundant and out of the 98 employees in the dealerships, 57 have been laid off.
However, the administrators have retained some of the workforce who may be called back into work should production start up again.
Last month, the financial position of the taxi maker was called into question after it was forced to recall 400 cars, halt sales of the model, and suspend trading in its shares.
The company suspended sales of its TX4 model after a steering defect was discovered, and warned the move would “have a very material and detrimental impact” on the group’s cashflow.
In August, Manganese discovered a £3.9m accounting error that had caused it to understate past losses, which it attributed to technology issues.
Hammond said: “Regretfully, without financial support to overcome the group’s operational issues we have had to make staff redundancies. While the steering box recall remains, there is a voluntary suspension on vehicle sales, and we are now concentrating all resources on testing the solution to the steering fault.
“We have retained sufficient numbers of staff across the dealership, head office and production network to address the operational, technical and financial circumstances that the business faces.”