Unsustainable losses have led to the collapse of a milk distributor that made thousands of deliveries to schools across the north every day.
All 66 employees of Normanton's Fresh Pastures Limited and School Milk º£½ÇÊÓƵ Limited were made redundant as administrators from RSM º£½ÇÊÓƵ Restructuring Advisory LLP were brought in to the 17-year old firms. It follows several years of losses at the companies which had provided milk and other diary and breakfast products to thousands of schools, nurseries and councils across the north and the Midlands.
The businesses were said to have served more than 150,000 school children every in 14 local authority areas between Wirral and North East Lincolnshire down to Nottingham. Through its team and a digital platform, School Milk provided outsourced administration of milk programmes for schools and nurseries.
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Most recent accounts for Fresh Pastures, in the year to the end of August 2021, show turnover of £5.3m and operating losses of more than £600,000. Meanwhile documents for School Milk º£½ÇÊÓƵ showed turnover of £2.27m and operating profit of more than £21,000.
Gareth Harris, partner at RSM and joint administrator, said: "Unfortunately the business has been loss making for several years, and despite concerted efforts by management it did not prove possible to turnaround performance; or find a buyer for the entire business. With further losses predicted over the summer and a large funding requirement imminent, the directors took the difficult decision to close. Schools have broken up for the summer, so we are hopeful that they now have some time to find an alternative supplier before the Autumn term starts."
RSM was advised by Matthew Brown and Niall Crossley at Gateley LLP.
