A Somerset company that supplies aerospace and defence giants including BAE Systems, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Leonardo has been partially sold out of administration.
Some 40 employees at Crewkerne-based advanced composite maker Tods Aerospace will be transferred over to defence engineering group Cobham Mission Systems as part of the deal.
The staff being transferred are part of Tods' defence division, which was sold by administrators FRP along with associated intellectual property and assets.
But the business advisory firm said it was unable to find a buyer for the remaining parts of the company and 56 employees would be made redundant.
Andrew Sheridan and Geoff Rowley, partners at FRP, were appointed as joint administrators of Tods Aerospace in March.
The duo, who have been overseeing the business since its collapse, said nine staff are being kept on in the short-term to “assist” them with the administration process.
Mr Sheridan said: “Operating through administration is a challenge for any business, let alone a cutting-edge manufacturer during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It is an incredible achievement for all the team at Tods Aerospace. Cobham offers an exciting new future for Tods Aerospace’s defence division and we wish the team all the best as they join the fold at a world-class global engineering group.
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“Regrettably, the sale we were negotiating of the commercial aviation division of Tods Aerospace, ultimately fell victim to the global downturn in the sector resulting from the pandemic.
"We are now working with the Redundancy Payments Service to support all affected employees.”
'We can build a foundation for long-term success'
Kevin McKeown, chief executive of Cobham Mission Systems, said: “We are pleased to have been able to safeguard the future of this high-quality British aerospace and defence business and its employees.
"Tods Aerospace’s capabilities in specialist composite structures are highly complementary to Cobham’s core aerospace and defence business.
"We are confident that through the right investment, and leveraging the world-class engineering expertise within Cobham, we can build a foundation for long-term success.”
Tods Aerospace was founded in 1932 as W&J Tod and specialises in the design and manufacture of specialist composite structures for use in the aerospace and defence industries.
Unitech Aerospace, the group company, and its other subsidiaries are not part of the administration.