Firm forced to lay off staff

Staff at a north Shropshire surfacing company have been temporarily laid off due to a funding collapse, bosses have said.

Nine full-time employees at Excelsior Surfacing in Market Drayton have been given unpaid time off because the firm is owed too much money from customers.

The staff were told at the end of last month they would be made temporarily redundant and bosses at the firm expect it to be weeks before trading starts again.

Gary Duce, partner in Excelsior Surfacing, which is based at Llewellyn Roberts Way, said the company was owed too much money and problems in obtaining it meant staff could not be paid.

He said all staff were laid off to avoid them carrying out work they could not be paid for, and all current projects were finished before the break began.

"We are not trading at the moment because we are owed a lot of money and we are struggling to get it in. Once the funds are all in place and we can get people paid we will be back up and running," he said.

"Staff were laid off on a temporary basis two weeks last Friday.

"It all depends on how quick we can get the money in – it's for work that we've done already. They might well be struggling to pay because of the recession, they could be in the same boat.

"We are not bankrupt and will be trading again soon.

"All nine staff have been paid for the work they have done.

"It will be weeks hopefully, not months, before we are back. It's the same all over, everyone is feeling it, everyone wants to extend their payment terms to you, most of them are 45 to 90 days and you can't do it, it's just too much.

"It's no good if you have to pay staff."

Mr Duce said the firm would try to renegotiate payment terms with its customers so monies could be received sooner.

"We will try to change terms but to be fair it's very difficult because a lot of the big companies don't want to do that so if you want to work for them you have to agree to their payment terms.

"All the work we did was finished and we were due to start some more on the Monday."

By Abigail Bates