Sales director John Dodsworth said: Its taken a long while to get everything in place its nothing sinister but we can only go as fast as our and Howitts advocates can go.
Nobodys more frustrated about this than us, he added. Its been a learning curve for Martin [Edmiston, commercial director] and myself and weve had to take advice at every step.
Offshore has sales of around 3m and employs 30 staff.
When the sale of the company was announced Howitt chief executive James Elliot said the group had decided to sell the operation to ensure its core businesses and heavyweight projects like the Equator gravure plant remained its top priorities.
This week, in response to persistent trade speculation that the main Howitt business itself was now up for sale, Elliot issued a denial via the company spokeswoman.
Story by Jo Francis
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"Gosh! That’s a huge debt - especially HMRC! It’s a shock that HMRC allowed such an amount to be accumulated."
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