Typhoo Tea is ready to nominate directors because the 120-year-old model’s gross sales hunch, losses widen and money owed rise.
The firm has filed a discover at court docket “which affords the company some breathing space to explore solutions”, Typhoo’s chief government Dave McNulty instructed the BBC.
The agency has been making an attempt to show itself round for a while.
However, it suffered a setback after trespassers broken its former manufacturing unit in Moreton, Merseyside final yr.
“Given the delicate nature of this we are not in a position to comment any further,” stated Mr McNulty.
He added that the “notice of intent” is to nominate accountancy agency EY to deal with the method.
“This does not mean we are in administration,” he stated, including it was “an ongoing confidential process”.
The firm’s losses widened to £38m from £9.6m within the yr to the top of September 2023, that are the newest outcomes out there. Sales fell to £25.3m from £33.7m.
Bristol-headquartered Typhoo Tea was based in 1903 and is broadly seen as one of many UK’s most important tea manufacturers, alongside the likes of PG Tips, Tetley’s and Yorkshire Tea.
Typhoo is majority-owned by non-public fairness agency Zetland Capital.
It had been managed by Indian conglomerate Apeejay Surrendra Group, which purchased the enterprise from Premier Foods in 2005.
Apeejay Surrendra offloaded its shareholding to Zetland in 2021.
‘Extensive injury’
The outcomes additionally revealed £24.1m price of “exceptional costs”, a few of which pertains to the break-in on the Moreton plant, which was shut down final yr.
Typhoo stated: “During August 2023, a group of organised trespassers broke into the Moreton site and occupied it for several days.”
It added that the trespassers triggered “extensive damage” and made the positioning “inaccessible”.
It stated lots of tea was rendered unusable and it was unable to fulfil some orders to clients.
The risk of administration comes simply two months after the corporate revamped its model with “Fear Free Tea”, a marketing campaign highlighting violence and abuse within the tea provide chain.
It stated it doesn’t assure that its personal product is “fear free” however that it “invites the tea industry to question and assess whether their teas are free of sexual violence”.
The 2023 BBC Panorama documentary Sex for Work: The True Cost of our Tea discovered that three in 4 girls interviewed at tea plantations had suffered sexual abuse.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yr22qq5q8o