ADMINISTRATORS appointed to a Sawtry company have sacked more than half the workforce in the hope of selling the business. Scandstick UK Limited, which was incorporated in 2002 after its Swedish parent company bought Little Paxton paper and board manufac

ADMINISTRATORS appointed to a Sawtry company have sacked more than half the workforce in the hope of selling the business.

Scandstick UK Limited, which was incorporated in 2002 after its Swedish parent company bought Little Paxton paper and board manufacturer Samuel Jones Limited, asked the High Court for an administration order last month because of cash flow difficulties.

The administrators, from Kroll Group's Birmingham office, made more than half Scandstick's 72-strong workforce redundant, as they started to restructure the business.

Administrator Joanne Wright said: "On appointment, we had to make the difficult decision to make 40 employees redundant. While regrettable, we believe this was a necessary step in order to secure viability while pursuing our goal of selling the business as a going concern. We are currently speaking with a number of interested parties and are hoping that a buyer can be found soon.

"We appreciate that this is a concerning time for the remaining employees of Scandstick UK Limited and we would like to thank them for their support and understanding during the administration process."

Scandstick UK Limited is a leading manufacturer of pressure sensitive materials, producing a wide range of self-adhesive material for the label industry, the administrators said.

In 2007 it turned over £21million, and had projected sales this year of £24million to customer across the UK, Europe and Australasia.

The company moved from Little Paxton in January 2006 into a purpose-built factory beside the A1(M) at Sawtry.

In 2006, the company was fined nearly £20,000 by the Environment Agency for failing to account for its carbon emissions under what was then new EU anti-pollution emissions trading legislation. It strongly disputed the penalty, which applied to emissions from the Samuel Jones site in 2005, at the time. The agency declined to comment on Scandstick's present difficulties.