Significant number of redundancies as Youngs Transportation and North West Cargo succumb to administration

With the industry currently struggling against a sluggish economy, cash flow issues and the impact of conflicts across the world, Leonard Curtis director Alex Cadwallader described the situation facing the whole sector as “troubling”.

The insolvency specialist was appointed to Youngs and the haulier it acquired in 2020, North West Cargo, on 31 January.

Youngs had traded for more than 50 years and between them the two businesses employed around 250 staff, operating across five sites in the South East, the South Coast and the North West. The combined turnover was more than £40m.

Licence records showed Youngs ran 85 lorries and North West Cargo 20.

The administrator said it had been able to sell one of the company’s sites in the North West, which had protected “a small number of jobs”.

Additional sales of assets had safeguarded some deliveries, which Leonard Curtis said would assist with recoveries.

It was not able to provide more detail about these sales as we went to press; however, in a statement, the administrator said: “Two other sites are being shut down with significant redundancies being made.”

Cadwallader said: “The UK logistics sector has been significantly impacted in recent months as a consequence of ongoing economic circumstances in the UK and wider factors affecting global freight and shipping.

“This has led to insurmountable working capital difficulties for Youngs Transportation & Logistics and North West Cargo, which ultimately resulted in both entities entering into administration.”

Joint administrator Dane O’Hara said: “Whilst a wide marketing of the group’s business and assets was undertaken prior to our appointment, a buyer for the entire operation could not be identified.

“However, via a number of smaller sales we have managed to safeguard parts of this long-established business. We are also focused on assisting the large number of staff impacted by these administrations.”

This latest administration came as other transport firms were forced to appoint insolvency experts.

AAD Transport, Bridgetime Transport, WJ Capper Transport, WH Barley, Bomfords Group, Gwynedd Shipping and HMF Services have all entered administration in recent months.

Cadwallader added: “We expect the UK logistics market to remain a challenging trading environment throughout Q1 and Q2 of 2024.”