by Chris Holland Business Reporter More than 200 jobs have been secured at a Bradford contract packaging company which has been bought out of administration by two of its long-standing directors.

Mailway Packaging Solutions, based at West Bowling, nearly closed due to cash flow problems caused by an unexpected and significant reduction in its credit facilities following a change in banking policy.

Directors Richard Bramma and Tim Lees had to pay wages out of their own pockets last Friday. They moved swiftly to acquire the assets of the £12 million turnover business in a pre-packaged administration arrangement, which will enable Mailway to continue trading and has safeguarded the future of the business and its 230 full-time employees.

Mr Bramma, chief executive of the new company, said: “We were forced into a position where we had to do the pre-pack deal. The unexpected cut in our credit facilities left us without enough funds to pay the workers and Tim and I paid the wages ourselves.

“Mailway has a large workforce, an excellent customer and supplier base and tremendous future prospects and we simply couldn’t bear to see it collapse. So, after considering all the options, and on professional advice, we concluded that a pre-pack administration was the only way forward.”

Mailway has been restructured with funders providing a £1.7 million working capital facility.

The new company will provide the same services as before across its three sites and aims to continue working with as many of its current suppliers – many of them local – as possible.

Mr Bramma said: “We have fully explained and apologised for the situation to our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, and they know that it didn’t occur due to any mismanagement on our part, more that it was related to the current financial climate. To date, our customers have been very supportive and understand these circumstances will have no impact on the service they receive, while our suppliers, although understandably very disappointed, have been remarkably understanding.”

Tim Lees said: “Richard and I have invested 40 years of our lives in this business and so are extremely disappointed to have been put in this position, especially as we were operating successfully, profitably and within our financing agreement. Our belief is that Mailway has a strong future and that we owe it to ourselves to try and deliver this.”

Last year Mailway announced plans to double in size within three years and also completed three acquisitions which provided bases in the South of England and Scotland. Mr Bramma said that after the funding shock, the next year would be one of consolidation.