The scale of last-ditch efforts to save Aberdeen engineering firm Belmar before its closure have been revealed.
Owned by the Ritchie family the business entered liquidation earlier this week with the loss of 48 jobs.
Just 18 months ago the firm took in energy industry veteran Mark Patterson and his firm Mansefield Investments in a bid to turn around the struggling business.
But despite a determined effort, the once-thriving city firm has now closed, owing millions of pounds to creditors.
Described by Mark as “the Rolls-Royce of engineering houses in Aberdeen” he revealed it went from being a “£8 million a year business to having virtually no orders”.
Efforts to turnaround Belmar
Mansefield Investments, launched in 2020, provides consultancy, support and other services to help distressed businesses.
Mark, who took on a non-executive role at Belmar, said: “We came in 18 months ago to help turn around the business.
“It was just about gone, in fact I thought the business was gone.
“We embarked on a plan and went through a restructuring reducing the workforce to 48 people.
“Last year we actually grew the business by 50% and turned a small profit which was a fairly major achievement to get to that place.”
‘Workload completely dried up’
Mark said prior to the oil and gas decline in 2015 Belmar was turning over £13m with staff numbers close to 100.
However, international competition, losses and falling orders all had an impact on the firm.
Mark revealed the loss of contracts by one of their biggest customers led to Belmar’s work drying up.
He said: “In November our biggest customer, lost two large contracts.
“They came and said, ‘look we’ve no work for the next six months’.
“So, unfortunately in the last four months our workload just completely dried up and we’ve gone from being an £8m a year business to having virtually no orders.
“We went in and then we relooked at how could we resize the business and it came to us a month ago there’s just no way we can save that.
“If there’s no work, there’s no work.”
Sadness over job losses
Mark said the Ritchies, who founded the business in 1975, made every effort to save the business.
This included spending £3m of their own cash.
He said: “The family tried to save the business. They actually put in nearly three million pounds over the last five years to keep the business going.
“Not many families would do that.
“They’ve done their best and helped financially throughout the period in the difficult times to support it as best they could.
“The management team and ourselves really tried to save the business, but it became too difficult.
“Our thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs.”
Lost confidence in the market
Belmar operated from a 37,000 sq ft workshop in the West Tullos Industrial Estate.
It provided medium to large turning, milling, boring, weld overlay and NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation).
Michael Reid of MHA will wrap up the affairs of the Abbotswell Road based business.
Mark believes the issues faced by Belmar are not unique in the engineering industry with many businesses choosing to take their manufacturing out of the UK and move overseas.
He said: “The whole engineering business across the piece – unless you specialise – is actually in a lot of difficulty and we’re not alone.
“It is just a state of where the play is and what hasn’t helped is of course the government’s stance on the North Sea and the windfall tax.
“All of that’s played a part, confidence has been lost in the market.”
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