Peterborough business Premier Kitchens closes with loss of 100 jobs

Founder and managing director Iain Forsythe told the Peterborough Telegraph that he is devastated by the collapse of the company after a financial restructure failed at the eleventh hour.

He said that hotlines offering advice would be manned from Monday and that customers would all be ‘dealt with personally’.

He said a small number of employees were being retained to deal with ongoing contracts and to help give customers advice.

Mr Forsythe, who set up the business 27 years ago, said difficult economic conditions, uncertainty over Brexit and other factors had meant the company was facing difficult trading. A financial restructure looked to have secured the firm’s future but Mr Forsythe said a late decision by one of the company’s creditors to pull out meant it had proved impossible to continue.

“After 27 years for this to happen is devastating,” he said. “We are not the only ones to have been hit like this. We have seen many household names fall by the wayside but it still hurts.

“Phone lines will be set up tomorrow and will be manned from Monday. We will deal with all of our customers personally. We have a skeleton staff to help us do that and to deal with some ongoing contracts.We have taken advice from suppliers and credit card companies and will be working now to do all we can to make sure that our customers are all spoken to and are OK.

“To say we are devastated is an understatement. Our showrooms are closed and it has been an incredibly difficult time.

“We have some great people and this is also a huge blow to them.

“We have given it everything we can to try to continue but in the end it has not been possible. We are all devastated.”

The company is based at Phorpres Park in Peterborough and has showrooms in Northampton, Bedford and Wellingborough.