Anderson Precision Gearing calls in administrator

AN ENGINEERING firm which was awarded a £1.6 million grant by Scottish Enterprise in January has called in the administrator.

The immediate closure of Anderson Precision Gearing (APG), a 114-year old engineering firm in Motherwell, means the loss of 38 jobs.

Administrator PwC said the firm had been hit by a downturn in demand and the loss of contracts after a failure to find a buyer.

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In January the company announced it had won a government-funded regional selective assistance grant which it would use to move into bigger premises at Bellshill industrial estate and hire 53 staff over the next three years. PwC confirmed that the enterprise agency was a creditor and is owed £825,000 which had been advanced to the firm.

The business, which specialises in manufacturing heavy industrial gears for the rail, oil and gas, construction and mining industries, employed 42 people. PwC’s Bruce Cartwright and Alan Brown said the business had ceased trading with only four staff retained “to assist in realising the value of APG’s assets”.

In 2010 APG was “rescued” by a sister engineering firm, Pailton Engineering in Coventry.

A further 28 jobs are to go at the Highlander crisps factory in Bathgate. Production will stop at the end of this month after 26 years.

It is thought the company’s owner, Milan-based San Carlo Gruppo Alimentare, aims to produce the potato snacks with the tagline “The taste of Scotland” in Italy.