Wrafter Haulage set to be liquidated
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By Chris Tindall
A WORCESTER-based haulier that won a contract to help build a 600-capacity prison on Merseyside has gone into liquidation, after the government cancelled the plans shortly after coming to power.
Wrafter Haulage boss Sean Wrafter says the three-year contract, which also included delivering building materials to Belmarsh prison, “could have been the making of us”.
He says its cancellation contributed to the end of the 25-year-old firm, which had a licence authorising 14 lorries and 14 trailers out of its Bromsgrove depot. Liquidators from MB Insolvency were appointed on 15 June and Wrafter says he and his wife, director Denise, are now helping to “wind things down and trying to put things to bed”.
He says: “The haulage industry isn’t the easiest to be involved in, but we had limited success. It gave us a good living and it gave a few drivers a good living over the years. Having delivered up to 40 loads a day to Belmarsh, we went to nothing. It went over the edge of a cliff.
“The projected figures were 12% net on a £5m turnover.
“Nobody could have foreseen the government coming in and cancelling the Maghull prison con tract. Having taken on hard advice from our accountants, we decided [that we had] to close.” Wrafter adds that the car transporter side of the business also suffered due to competitors increasingly undercutting its rates.
“What I am trying to do is set up another company,” he says. “We still have customers who want us to stay on board in one form or another.
“I have been in the haulage industry since I left school. It’s tough, and certainly not getting any easier at the moment.”