A historic Northumberland business that counts King Charles as a customer has been saved via pre-pack administration.
High end furniture maker Delcor has secured 42 jobs in the move, which owner Jeff Harris says has protected the interests of small suppliers and was essential to preserve the company, which dates back to the mid-1960s.
Mr Harris told The Journal the cost of living crisis and energy inflation had caused headwinds for the Seaton Delaval-based firm which caused turnover to drop, but that Delcor was now £1.1m better off in cash flow having called in administrators. The move is said to have protected materials suppliers while wiping debts to lenders and HMRC, and sales are said to have been strong in recent months.
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Mr Harris explained the primary reason for calling administrators was to protect jobs. He said: “I’m from a financial background, and I never thought I’d love a company - to me it was all just numbers but Delcor is something special.
“If you’ve ever been into our showroom, you’ll have seen what I mean. The majority of our staff have been with us for 20 years and there aren’t many places where you can say: ‘If you stick it out, you’ll have a job for life’. And it is that kind of place. We don’t have the funds to run apprenticeships but we do take people on and train people up.
“Now it’s all about efficiencies so we’ve got drivers doing a bit of marketing, we’ve got sprayers doing cushions. People are mucking in and doing a little bit more than their normal jobs. It’s a tighter knit now.”
He added: “We’ve looked after the suppliers that are obviously small businesspeople, like us. You don’t want anybody to feel that sort of ripple and we’ve kept everybody pretty happy over the last few months, as best we can. I don’t think there’s any businessperson or company that’s lost anything. They’re our suppliers - some of them were willing to lose a little bit.
“But we’ve come through it, we’ve got strong sales in the last four or five months, and we were able to not lose anything.”
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The sofa and armchair specialist, which boasts two of its own showrooms and two franchise outlets, had been forced to close a London outlet owing to costs but now says it is a “lighter” and profitable company. Its made-to-measure pieces are manufactured at its Northumberland workshop by a skilled team of cutters, machinists and upholsterers, and presented at the firm’s historic Delcor House property, which has served as a showroom for many years.
The firm offers a 50-year guarantee on its ranges, meaning it frequently refurbishes pieces, in some cases from as far back as the 1970s.