Leading UK manufacturer of small to medium hydraulic presses, PJ Hare, experiences a significant loss in revenue.

The challenge

Founded in 1947 and based in Wrington, Bristol, P.J.Hare was a manufacturer of small to medium size hydraulic presses, specialising in the automotive industry. Since opening, the company produced and distributed over 17,000 units worldwide however ran into financial difficulties as a result of a decreasing volume in orders and challenging market conditions. The One80 experts were instructed after the director had injected £500k of their own money to keep the business afloat but there was still no sign of improvement.

The solution

A contributing factor to the company’s financial downfall was the impact of customers delaying their orders, this was particularly apparent to those in the automotive sector and had a detrimental effect on the amount of cash available to the business. This, coupled with wider concerns over delays to Brexit led to a collapse in the order book during 2019 to an unsustainable level.

Management were seeking formal advice on continuing to trade as the pipeline had evaporated and £1million of customer deposits had already been taken. We were engaged in a varied capacity to advise the board on managing key stakeholders, maximising a return to creditors, protecting value in work in progress (WIP) and closure planning.

Following in-depth discussions with the management team and the directors, we initially put the company into administration but this was eventually preceded by a managed winding down of operations. To advance the winding down procedure, we recognised early on in the initial advice process that as a strong brand in the machinery manufacturing sector, there was value in the business and assets. We immediately put these up for sale and also submitted an R&D tax relief claim to alleviate some of the financial pressure. In addition, we proactively engaged with the company’s lenders and took a collaborative approach to ensure their ongoing support to deliver the optimum outcome.