At the request of the directors, Maidstone, Kent-based printed circuit board manufacturer Circaprint Holdings Plc went into receivership on Friday after failing to secure a refinancing package. The bank has appointed two partners of Cork Gully’s Maidstone office as receivers – Nigel Vooght and Chris Hughes. The board attributes Circaprint’s fate to the opening of a new factory in Northern Ireland at a time when the market began its major decline. The company, quoted on the Unlisted Securities Market, plunged into the red for the six months to February 1990, blaming its disappointing performance at the time on a deferment of orders from British Telecommunications Plc which put press-ure on profit margins. In an attempt to turn the company around last year, the board implemented a restructuring programme which involved the concentration of Circaprint’s multi-layer and fast turnover business at the company’s facility in Aylesford, Kent, and the increase of volume production of boards in Exmouth and at the Monkstown factory, near Belfast, which Circaprint acquired from STC Plc. Cork Gully, which will be absorbing all the group excluding its Northern Ireland facilities, says it is currently reviewing the Circaprint’s position, with the aim of continuing to trade pending sale as a going concern, which, says Nigel Vooght, could involve the group as a whole or individual subsidiaries. Circaprint is still trading and is claimed to have a full order book. The 24-year-old firm has 450 staff, half based in Kent.
