Engineering company closes

An engineering company has gone in to administration after sixty years operating in Hertford.

Once one of the town's largest employers, Fluorocarbon in Caxton Hill appointed administrators at the end of May, after a number of years making a loss.

The company specialised in non-stick PTFE products, such as gaskets, valves, bearings and surface coatings.

Over 100 people were once employed on the Caxton Hill site and the company thrived after having been founded in 1962.

However the company has struggled over recent years with redundancies reducing the number of employees on site.

In the year to 31st December 2021 the company posted a loss of £2m, slightly less that the loss for the previous year of £2.2m.

The company pension scheme has a deficit of £19.5m.

The factory site has recently been acquired by Caxton Capital Partners for £5m, who are proposing the redevelopment of the adjacent industrial estate and the refurbishment of the Fluorocarbon buildings.

Following the appointment of administrators, the business and its assets were sold to a company run by the same directors. Administrators said: "The sale transaction was entered into in pursuit of achieving a better result for the company's creditors as a whole than would be likely if the company were wound up without first entering administration.

"As the business and asset sale resulted in 43 employees transferring to the Purchaser via TUPE [Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006], this prevented the crystallisation of claims for unpaid wages, holiday pay, redundancy pay and oay in lieu of notice."