Boss of blinds firm vows to come back fighting

Sep 2 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

WINDOW blinds company boss Dave Noble says the firm will honour all outstanding orders and come back fighting after its parent company went into administration, leading to the loss of over 35 jobs.

Washington-based A1 Blinds has been a feature of the North East home improvement landscape for over 30 years but a cash-flow crisis saw holding company A1 Venetian Blinds placed into administration a week ago.

This led to the immediate closure of the A1 Blinds outlet on Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle, and redundancy for most of the company’s 45-strong workforce.

There are still around 10 staff currently employed at its head office in the Crowther area of Washington, who are fulfilling outstanding orders.

Mr Noble, managing director and joint owner of the company along with Trevor Wintersgill, told nebusiness: “We want the company to trade on and that is what we are continuing to do. This is essentially a good business and it has a good future.”

Journalists at nebusiness have been contacted by customers of A1 saying they have been unable to get any answers from the company.

But Mr Noble went on to say that it will honour all its contracts and hopes to have the business returning to normal operations within a week.

“There has been a problem with the telephone line here at Washington and we are trying to sort it out but A1 is continuing to trade and it’s business as usual for customers.”

A creditors’ meeting is scheduled for September 7 and administrators at Yorkshire-based business recovery firm Walsh Taylor are working on proposals for it to resurrect the firm and meet creditors’ demands, said Mr Noble.

He said there had been a 30% decline in the market for blinds in the last 18 months, which had affected many firms and pushed the company to redraw its business plan.

He explained: “We bought a business in Bradford and closed its manufacturing facility giving us a wider geographic area to work on while being able to bring the production back to the North East.”

However a cash-flow crisis led to the holding company A1 Venetian Blinds being put into administration last week. No one from Walsh Taylor was prepared to comment.

Customers of A1 Blinds are asked to ring 0191 417 2719 if they have any queries.