A small family MDF panel finishing business has promised to keep going despite an ‘awful’ period of unpaid contracts and subsequent redundancies.
Liz Faulkner, managing director of Essex-based Color-Board Ltd, said she was not prepared to let more than 40 years of company history end.
The company specialises in ‘curtain’ finishing and its products are used in shopfitting, building and construction and for display.
Its difficulties in 2001 stemmed from two unpaid bills. The most serious was a customer who was working on the Greenwich Millennium Village development and who went bust, owing Color-Board £20,000. Color-Board had invested £12,000 in a Gibbs Sandmaster MF2 sander and employed a new sprayer to fulfil the contract. Four of the seven staff members were subsequently made redundant.
Ms Faulkner, granddaughter of Color-Board founder Victor Wain, said: ‘It’s the fact that there is all that finishing that has gone back through the family. There are not too many small businesses in manufacturing and it’s got to keep going.’
‘It really relies on us getting more business. We’ve had a few lines of interest and have hopes for the new year. I have put some of my own money into the business to help with the cash flow to assist us through this period.’
Ms Faulkner thanked several suppliers and customers who are helping with the company’s cash flow during the difficult period, including Euroscandinavian, S Silverman, CF Anderson, T Laughton, Kessler International and ISF.
