According to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, the company, which is based at Moulton Park, Northampton, told a number of administrative staff and about 20 fitters on 27 January that they would be losing their jobs.
The newspaper report also said that, as of last week, some of the workers that had been made redundant had not received wages for work carried out in the past month.
According to documents seen by PrintWeek, the firm recorded a loss of £2.8m in the 11-month period to 30 November 2014 due to increasing costs of sales and administrative expenses and the loss of a major retail contract.
Hawes Signs provides the project management, design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of brand identity and POS signs, displays and graphics. The firm’s clients have previously included Tesco, Rolls Royce and a number of major banks.
One creditor told PrintWeek that Hawes has proposed a CVA and that business recovery firm Leonard Curtis was working with the business.
The creditors’ meeting will take place next Tuesday (17 February) at 11am at Leonard Curtis’ Manchester office. The business will need 75% approval of creditors by value to be able to enter the CVA.
It is understood that the unsecured creditors list totals £5,381,577 with the company offering to pay back 36.3p in the pound over five years. A total of £1,430,865 is owed to HMRC.
PrintWeek also understands that HLD Sandfield, a business incorporated on 13 January according to Companies House, purchased the firm’s entire share capital on 21 January.
Hawes’ most recently filed accounts, for the year ended 31 December 2013, showed that the company made a loss, after taxation, of £297,000. In 2012 it had made a profit of £1m.
At the end of 2013 it employed 207 staff with staff costs totalling £7.4m, up from £6.5m in 2012 when it employed 192 staff.
Managing director Clive Hawes said in the strategic report that trading had continued to be competitive with the firm’s turnover down £1.6m on the previous year to £19.7m.
He said: “The competitive market, driven by excess supply, resulted in margins for the year of 26.8% down some 4.7% giving a reduced margin contribution of £1.4m. The reduced margin was the primary driver of the resultant pre-tax loss of £300,000 against the pre-tax profit in the previous year of £1.1m.”
According to local reports the company had already reduced its headcount by 81 in 2009 after being hit by the effects of the global economic crisis.
Hawes Signs and Leonard Curtis were unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
