Revenue downturn hits manufacturer placed into administration

A historic manufacturer has been placed in administration which has seen almost half of its staff already axed.

Coventry-based Covrad Heat Transfer, whose roots in the city can be traced back to 1886, specialises in heat transfer equipment, serving the power, rail, marine, oil and gas, and off-highway markets.

But administrators said it had suffered a downturn in revenue as a result of the pandemic and key customers sourcing products from alternative suppliers.

The move has seen 28 employees on furlough made redundant while the remaining 38 will be retained to support re-confirmed orders and the administration process.

Raj Mittal and Tony Barrell from business advisory firm FRP are joint administrators and are now in discussion with Covrad’s key customers regarding ongoing orders.

Mr Mittal said: “Despite the efforts of the directors and management, the reduction in turnover and consequential trading losses facing the company were not able to be resolved and resulted in the decision to place the business into administration.

“Our immediate priority is now to support those affected and work closely with the redundancy payments service to ensure that employees receive every support at this difficult time.”

Covrad Heat Transfer is a subsidiary of the API Heat Transfer Group based in the USA which also has operations in Germany, China and the Netherlands.

The other operations of API Heat Transfer Group remain unaffected by the administration.

Covrad previously employed 165 staff at its base in the Canley area of the city but numbers have been reducing there following two previous rounds of redundancies.