Redundancies made at troubled engineering company in Wisbech

RJ Herbert Engineering, which has gone into administration.

Jobs are to be axed at a Wisbech engineering company after it went into administration.

Administrators have announced that 84 people will be made redundant from R J Herbert Engineering, of Walton Highway, near Wisbech.

The action comes two weeks after administrators were called into the RJ Herbert Group and RJ Herbert Engineering.

A statement from administrators Deloitte stated that of the remaining workforce, 32 employees will be transferred to Herbert Systems Ltd and another 14 will be retained while RJ Herbert Engineering is wound down.

Chris Farrington, joint administrator and financial advisory partner to Deloitte, said: “We have been unable to find a buyer for RJ Herbert Engineering so far, although the factory, stock, plant equipment and technical drawings are still available for sale.

“We would still prefer to sell the manufacturing facility as one unit if a buyer could be found quickly, which could potentially resurrect the business.

“Trading any business during administration cannot be done indefinitely due to the cost involved and therefore these job losses have become inevitable.

He added: “We have found an overseas third party to buy Herbert Systems Ltd and we hope to conclude the terms of the offer in the coming weeks.”