Furniture firm collapse puts 300 jobs at risk

A furniture manufacturing business which supplies high street chains has gone into administration, putting about 300 jobs at risk in north-east Wales.

Interpath was appointed as administrator to Westbridge Furniture Limited, based in Holywell, Flintshire, on Monday.

Joint administrator Chris Pole said it had been "a challenging time for furniture manufacturers and retailers" due to a combination of factors, including falling sales, high interest rates and inflation.

One member of staff at the Flintshire factory, who did not wish to be named, claimed that while staff were currently still working on existing orders, the factory was set to close on Thursday, as things stood.

The BBC has attempted to contact the company and Interpath has been approached for comment in response to the claims made by the anonymous employee.

The employee said staff were told of the site's possible closure on 20 March.

He said some staff left last week and those still working had been told they would definitely be made redundant, even if a buyer was found, adding that it would be up to any new owner to then rehire staff.

Staff had been told not to speak to the media about the situation, he added.

The company, previously known as Deeside Furniture, designs and manufactures sofas and other upholstery to customers including Marks & Spencer, John Lewis Partnership, Next Home and premium independent retailers, according to the company website.

Chris Pole and Will Wright from Interpath were appointed joint administrators on Monday to Westbridge Furniture Limited and Belfield Leisure Limited in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, which is also part of The Belfield Group.

Belfield Leisure Limited, which manufactures and supplies soft furnishings to the UK leisure market, employs about 200 people.

"While both Westbridge and Belfield Leisure had made positive progress on their respective turnaround journeys, both companies required further injections of capital," said Pole.

"Unfortunately, and despite the best efforts of management to secure funding, this has not been possible, which has sadly resulted in the companies going into administration."

He said they planned to trade the Belfield Leisure business as a going concern, as well as maintaining operations at Westbridge for a period as they fulfilled work already in progress.

"We'd invite any parties who may be interested in acquiring the businesses and their assets to contact us at the earliest opportunity," he added.

Interpath said the business and assets of Westbridge Furniture Designs Limited and Belfield Furnishings Limited were acquired in February 2025, alongside other trading entities of The Belfield Group Limited, via a so-called pre-pack transaction.

This is an insolvency procedure in which a company arranges to move its assets to another owner before administrators are officially appointed.

Following the acquisition, Westbridge suffered operational disruption which had a greater impact on the business than originally anticipated and this, combined with the loss of a key customer and weak trading in early 2025, placed significant pressure on cash flow, an Interpath spokesperson said.

The trading performance of Belfield Leisure was also said to have been impacted by fragile consumer confidence impacting the wider UK leisure market, affecting the ability of the business to return to a break-even position, despite significant cost savings being made and a regaining of market share.

The directors of the businesses explored investment and refinancing options but took the difficult decision to appoint administrators when a solvent solution could not be found, Interpath added.

The administrators said they would continue to trade the businesses, working through certain orders in progress, while they explored options for a sale of the businesses and their assets.

"The majority of the companies' employees will be retained to assist the administrators during this period; however, regrettably, there have been a limited number of redundancies across both businesses," they added.

The spokesperson said other companies in The Belfield Group, namely Tetrad Furniture Limited and Clinchplain Foam and Fibre Limited are not in administration and continue to trade as normal.