Almost 150 jobs in the region have been lost after efforts to save a long-established steel company failed.
Bondshold Ltd - which has sites in Crook, County Durham, and Alston, near Hexham - called in administrators before Christmas after suffering from problems in the wider steel industry.
It had been hoped that the administrators would be able to find a buyer for the firm over its Christmas shut-down, but that has not happened.
Joint-administrator Clare Boardman, from Deloitte, has written to staff to inform them that they are being made redundant, bringing to an end a company historing dating back more than 150 years.
The letter says: “We have, since our appointment, been working to seek such a sale, having also secured funding to ensure that weekly wages/monthly salary costs would be paid up until December 29 and December 31 respectively.
“I regret to inform you that while conversations continue with a small number of interested parties, there are no going concern offers and further, we have been unable to secure additional funding to meet ongoing wages and salary costs.
“The company is therefore left with no option but to terminate your employment by reason of redundancy.
“Please accept this letter as formal notice that your contract of employment with the company will terminate on December 27, 2019. Any benefits that you may have had under the terms of your contract of employment will, in most circumstances, now end.”
The company dates back to 1868 when it was founded in Tow Law, County Durham. Over its 150-year history, it has also had bases in Bishop Auckland while it moved to Crook in 2011, the same year it received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
As recently as last year the company was listed on the Sunday Times Lloyds SME Export Track 100 league, which ranks Britain’s small and medium-sized companies with the fastest-growing international sales.
But the company has suffered from problems in the wider UK steel industry, which has been struggling due to cheap imports and high energy prices.
Bondshold can date its roots back to 1868, when Joseph Bond, an early steel patent holder in the UK, set up a foundry in Tow Law. The company’s Alston site was opened in 1947 and in 2011 it developed a new foundry at Crook.
As well as the two North East sites, it also had a castings plant at Scunthorpe. Lincolnshire.
