Sixty people have been made redundant and production has ceased at Dandf Garden Products’ Ackworth plant.

Joint administrators Graham Newton and Brian Green of KPMG Corporate Recovery said the company had experienced severe cash flow difficulties in recent months.

Mr Newton said: “We are working with management to salvage the remaining value as quickly as is possible given the difficult circumstances.”

A number of parties have already expressed interest in acquiring the assets.

This is the third time that Dandf has been in financial trouble. Its predecessor operation Dean and Furbisher collapsed in 1999, but the manufacturing facilities were bought and Dandt was born. By 2001 more than 150 UK garden centres were stocking its products.

In 2002 receivers were called in again, but new owners Richard Fawcett and partner Paul Phillips saved the company moved to new 120,000ft2 premises at Ackworth.

Mr Fawcett pledged investment and predicted turnover in 2002 to be around £4.5m – a figure he said would increase ‘quite substantially’ in 2003.

However, in March this year John Brayshaw, managing director at Dandf, sounded the first note of alarm when he reported that decking demand had slowed.

Dandf is not alone in feeling the squeeze. B&Q has announced shed closures, JELD-WEN UK has shut its Lowestoft door factory and Forest Garden plc and Richard Burbidge Ltd have implemented redundancies and financial restructuring.

  • At Richard Burbidge, company founder Richard Burbidge has made new senior appointments so he can concentrate on his role as chairman. He said difficult decisions have been made recently to counteract slow sales due to the housing and retail downturn but said the changes pave the way for the next stage of the company’s growth.

    He wants to expand further and will be looking at possible acquisitions.