Buyer sought for Midlothian pod-maker Armadilla after administrators appointed

A buyer is being sought for Armadilla, a Midlothian-based maker of eco-friendly, outdoor living and working spaces such as holiday accommodation and garden offices, after it fell into administration with the loss of about 30 jobs.

Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden from Interpath Advisory have been appointed joint administrators to the Bonnyrigg-based firm that was founded in 2010 and designs, manufactures and delivers sustainable luxury modular accommodation to clients across the education and high-end leisure and wellness sectors.

Interpath Advisory said it had built a strong order book, with significant projects in the pipeline in Scotland, the Algarve, the USA and Dubai, but experienced significant cashflow challenges as a result of order deferrals in the wake of the pandemic, the rising cost of raw materials, and the cost and time burden of exporting to the EU. Despite the “exhaustive” efforts of the management team, it has ceased to trade and had to lay off its 29 staff.

Blair Nimmo, chief executive of Interpath Advisory, said: “Armadilla had forged a reputation for its distinctive, environmentally sustainable and high-quality range of luxury accommodation pods, winning the 2020 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. Unfortunately however, the disruption encountered by the business during the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with soaring costs, meant that the business was no longer viable in its current form.”

Armadilla earlier this year supplied the largest single order for its Education Pods to a school in Surrey. Picture: Colin Hattersley.

Alistair McAlinden, head of Interpath Advisory Scotland, said: “We are now looking to find a buyer for the business and its assets, including its intellectual property (structural designs, architectural drawings and [Computer-Aided Design] tooling), the current work-in-progress and the customer order book.”