D.D.D. Limited (00122029): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2020-02-28
- Administrators' firm
- PwC
- Incorporated
- 1912-05-16
- Location
- Leeds
- Industry
- 21100 Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products
Why it went into administration
- Funding withdrawn / unable to refinance
- Sustained trading losses
- Shift to online / high-street decline
- Cash flow / liquidity pressure
From the administrators' statement
The Company is a family-owned business founded in 1912 and based in Watford. It develops, manufactures and distributes a range of healthcare, beauty and pharmaceutical products both locally and internationaily. The Company owns a number of brands including Astral, Flourish and Snufflebabe. It also provides product development and manufacturing services to third parties.
The core business has been loss making since 2016, with the year ended 31 December 2015 being the last year a profit was recorded. The fosses arose as a consequence of both internal and external factors. The Company lost some of its larger agency customers inctuding brands such as Just4Men, whilst orders of larger volume products also reduced in its manufacturing division. The Company’s trading performance also correlated with the performance of the high street customers it supplied. Accordingly, declining high street sales are a contributory factor to the losses.
internally, there were a number of operational inefficiencies. The Company exited its Button & Wilde venture (2017), closed and exited a warehouse at Valley Park (also in 2017), and needed to invest heavily in its manufacturing arm (known as Fleet) to meet the minimum requirements for MHRA accreditation. This led to a large workforce relative to the volume of production.
Administrators' statement of proposals (2020-04-22) · Companies House register