Boss’s battle for survival

CLIVE GALLAGHER

The boss of troubled firm Sellers has revealed the extent of the company’s problems - and his optimistic survival plan.

Last week we reported how employees at the Chadderton engineering firm were angry they hadn’t been paid for a fortnight.

They also revealed the firm had gone into administration and would reopen up under another name.

Managing director Clive Gallagher has responded to the claims: “We have ended up in administration. There were a lot of issues last year; we had trouble balancing the business.

“It was getting to the point where we felt we couldn’t continue to trade. We looked at putting together some form of survival plan or seeing if there was outside interest in the company. In the end we had to look at a buy-out.

“We’ve had to get overheads balanced and make reductions, put forward a lower budget and reduce the number of people working here, which was a huge shame. But staff have been very good. The guys on the shop floor haven’t been paid at times and they are currently a week out, but we will put that right.

“”It is going to be hard, but we have got to work together. It could have been quite easy to let the company go, but that wasn’t an option.”