MORE than 200 jobs are at risk after an engineering firm based at Prestwick Airport collapsed into administration.
Founded almost six decades ago, the Ayrshire-based Wallace McDowall Limited, an engineering and fabrication business, is a major employer in the area.
However, it has been announced that Hilary Pascoe and Mike Dillon of Leonard Curtis have been appointed joint liquidators to the firm, after staff were warned in April that they could face redundancy.
According to reports, staff were warned in a memo in April about the possibility of the company falling into administration, with bosses saying the business would “operate as normal” while trying to find the “best possible outcome”.
Wallace McDowall Limited first started its life in Ayr in 1969, focusing on agriculture with around 40 employees.
Now, the firm employs around 200 in its “state-of-the-art” 126,000-square-foot facility set within the Spaceport at Glasgow Prestwick International.
According to Wallace McDowall Limited’s website, it offers a “vast array of engineering and fabrication services to many businesses from global manufacturers to smaller privately owned businesses”.
It offers services including component assembly, welding, finishing, machining, laser cutting and design.
The business said it caters to customers across the world in sectors including automotive, oil and gas, agricultural and material handling.
The announcement of potential redundancies comes after the company changed its name to WMCD Realisations 2026 Limited last week.
The firm said it was acquired in 2019 by the HLD Group and added that since the takeover, the firm has “enjoyed continuous development in our processes and the training of our employees making us better equipped to serve the changing needs of our customers”.
Adding: “Our directors and our senior management team are currently responsible for leading and developing our business.
“Most of our management team started as apprentices in the firm and embody our ethos in developing a world-class manufacturing facility, focusing on customer excellence, employee development, technological advancement and transitioning the business towards net zero.”
It comes after all jobs were lost when AIM Engineering & Fabrication Group Limited and Hescott Engineering Company Limited, operating from Falkirk and Larbert, plunged into administration earlier this month.
The firms delivered steel and metalwork design engineering, fabrication, construction and industrial services, alongside site installation, working across the construction, petrochemical, oil and gas and industrial processing sectors.
Both companies said they had experienced “challenging” trading conditions, which had been exacerbated by the loss of a major customer.
Administrators said at the time that the directors of the businesses took the “difficult decision” to place the firms into administration after it emerged their financial position had become “unsustainable”.
A total of 93 jobs were lost after both firms ceased trading.
