A loss-making Suffolk flour mill has been bought out of administration in a pre-pack deal, saving all 16 jobs at the plant.

East Anglian Daily Times: Adrian Allen of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP.Adrian Allen of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP. (Image: RSM)

Administrators were called in at C Marston & Sons (Icklingham) Limited, near Bury St Edmunds, and related property holding company D and S Marston Limited, in May of this year.

The C Marston and Sons (Icklingham) Limited flour mill has been sold to Heygates Limited in a pre-packaged sale for an undisclosed sum, while the freehold property owned by D and S Marston Limited has been sold to Throop Milling Limited.

All jobs at the mill have been saved as a result of the deal.

Steven Law and Adrian Allen of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed as joint administrators.

The milling business had incurred losses in recent years, and had been unable to secure the efficiencies necessary to make its core contracts profitable.

The company had also been negatively impacted by its inability to secure physical wheat at the right price to meet its obligations, administrators said.

Mr Law, a partner at RSM, said: “The sale of the assets and property has allowed the milling activities to continue to trade, and has also secured a number of jobs.

“The related transactions also provide the best possible outcome for creditors in the circumstances.”

Troop Milling Limited is “a relatively new company formed for acquiring the freehold”, added Mr Law.

Heygates, based in Northampton, has seven flour mills over three sites, two modern bakeries and 7500 acres of mainly arable land.

The family-owned business, which employs more than 900 staff under joint managing directors Paul and Bob Heygate, has mills at Bugbrooke in Northampton, Tring in Hertfordshire and Downham Market in Norfolk.

It also has a fleet of more than 80 vehicles and a test bakery with two resident bakers.

The family moved into milling in the 19th century, when Arthur Robert Heygate senior, grandfather of its present managers, took over the family mill at Bugbrooke.

Duncan Marston, of C Marston & Sons, said: “It has been very difficult time but we are very pleased that everyone’s jobs have been saved for the future.”