Fears over machinery firm

The future of a Shropshire farm machinery business could be in jeopardy after the company went into administration.

Bosses at Burgess Agricultural Engineers Ltd, based in Sundorne, Shrewsbury, today confirmed it had been put in the hands of administrators.

The Shrewsbury branch, in Newport Road, remained up and running today.

A staff member, who did not want to be named, said today: "We haven't been told anything. As far as we know we are carrying on but we don't know from one day to the next really."

Directors Jonathan Budd and Greg Duce are expected to meet Liverpool insolvency experts Parkin S Booth to discuss the situation.

Mr Budd said: "The business at Shrewsbury is still trading. Burgess Engineers Ltd as a company is in administration."

He added that he did not have any details of a meeting with the insolvency experts.

Burgess, which once had almost 100 branches across Wales and the north west of England, was established in the 1860s and is part of the region's agricultural heritage. Only seven branches now remain.

They are in Shrewsbury, Chester, Nantwich, Llangefni, Denbigh, Leek and Barton-under-Needwood in Staffordshire.