Shrewsbury furniture firm goes into liquidation
A Shrewsbury furniture company has gone into voluntary liquidation after more than 30 years of trading, with the loss of five jobs.
Paul Rushworth, who ran Rushworth's Furniture in Ennerdale Road, Harlescott, alongside his father Geoff, blamed the decision on high rents and the recent VAT rise.
Official liquidators have now been appointed to oversee the voluntary winding up of the firm – which opened in Shrewsbury in 1981 and produced handcrafted, individually designed pieces of furniture.
After opening in a small workshop in the Greenfields area of town, the firm moved to Frankwell in 1984 and then on to Abbey Foregate in 1986.
It moved to its final home in Ennerdale Road, Harlescott, in 1990 and staff recently celebrated its 32nd anniversary.
Mr Rushworth said: "It was a very hard decision to make to apply to be voluntarily wound up.
"We have met all our orders and redundancy has been paid to the cabinet makers.
"We found it difficult to carry on what with high rents and VAT.
"The Conservatives said they would help small businesses but then they raised VAT to 20 per cent which was a big blow.
"It has been a very sad decision to shut the business down after all we have done. We wanted to be able to walk around Shrewsbury with our heads high – this was not our doing.
"The firm had been going for 32 years. Once we employed 14 men then we had to downsize, eventually ending up with five.
"The day we told them the workshop was closing they offered to stay on and help."
Coventry-based Cranfield Business Recovery Limited has been appointed as liquidators.
