180 jobs lost at troubled paper firm

Published on Thursday 24 July 2008 17:27

AN HISTORIC paper manufacturer has gone into administration with the loss of 180 jobs, it was announced today.

Curtis Fine Papers Ltd said increases in energy costs and the decline in the availability of credit had contributed to its difficulties.

Blair Nimmo and Gary Fraser of KPMG Restructuring have now been appointed as joint administrators by the company's directors.

The administrators said 180 of the total workforce of 260 were being made redundant, and that production had ceased.

Curtis Fine Papers has operated from its headquarters in Guardbridge, near St Andrews, for 135 years.

It manufactured and supplied quality uncoated fine paper for the UK and international markets with an annual turnover of 35 million.

Following significant losses in recent years, the company had enjoyed an improvement in trading over the last year.

However, the business was hit by a number of external factors, including significant increases in energy and raw material costs and a general decline in the availability of credit.

In addition, difficulties in the real estate markets prevented the company from selling a surplus area of land to raise funds.

The company said it explored several opportunities to sell the business, but these were not successful.

Blair Nimmo, joint administrator and head of restructuring for KPMG in Scotland, said: "It is with regret that we have had to make substantial redundancies across Curtis Fine Papers operations and we are working with government agencies to ensure the employees' issues are dealt with as best as possible."