A haulage firm in the North West that had been trading successfully since the 1960s closed down this summer after losing a series of key contracts, resulting in significant losses in 2023 and 2024.
Administrator Begbies Traynor said management accounts prepared for W. Harrison & Sons (Carriers) showed that the company was also making consistent monthly losses in the year ending 30 April 2025 - and this was expected to deteriorate further when another major contract worth around £750,000 a year came to an end at the end of July.
The haulier, which traded as Express Parcel Services and had been operating since 1962, provided a range of storage, warehousing and distribution services and ran 45 lorries and 51 trailers out of a Middleton, Manchester base.
The administrator said the contract losses meant that the profit the Pallet-Track member generated in the year ending 31 May 2022 of almost £151,000 plummeted to a £454,000 loss in 2023 and a £273,000 loss in 2024.
A marketing process was launched to find a buyer for the business, but Begbies Traynor said no interested parties made an offer on a going concern basis.
An auction of W. Harrison’s vehicles, office equipment, plant and machinery last month raised almost £140,000 and a subsequent sale of its fuel stock was expected to lead to further realisations.
“The company’s non-preferential unsecured creditors were estimated to total £1,129,111.66,” the administrator added.
“We consider that there may be sufficient funds for a dividend to be paid to unsecured creditors.
“However, it is not yet possible to provide an estimated quantum of the return to unsecured creditors until such time as the claims of preferential and secondary preferential creditors have been adjudicated on for the purposes of a dividend.”
