685 Waverley TBS employees made redundant

The Joint Administrators of Waverley TBS Ltd (Waverley), the wholesale distributor of drinks, are to scale down efforts to sell the business as a going concern, having been unable to find a buyer.
Waverley will continue to operate with a reduced workforce of 97 employees, while the Administrators now begin to realise value from the assets of the business. As a result, 685 employees have today been made redundant.
Daniel Butters, Joint Administrator and restructuring services partner at Deloitte, said, “Regrettably, despite our continued efforts, we have been unable to identify a suitable buyer for the business. Whilst we will continue to consider offers for the sale of the business as a going concern, we will now focus on realising value from the company’s assets.
“Unfortunately, it has been necessary to make 685 redundancies at Waverley’s sites across the UK. We will retain a core team of 97 employees to assist us in realising value from the company’s assets.”
The Administrators are working closely with Job Centre Plus to provide support and advice to employees who have been made redundant, and the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service has put together a team to quickly approve claims for employee entitlements.
Butters added: “We are extremely grateful to the staff and management for their support throughout this difficult time. We would also like to thank the Job Centre and Insolvency Service for their cooperation and help.”
Waverley and its parent company were placed into administration on 2 October 2012. Daniel Butters and Bill Dawson of Deloitte, the business advisory firm, were appointed as Joint Administrators.