Dear Tony
23rd October 2012

Further to the recent announcement in respect of Uniglaze 2 (East Anglia) Ltd being placed in administration the directors of SGH Ltd would like to make clear the factual circumstances relating to this matter.

In April 2011 Swift Group Holdings extended substantial financial assistance to Uniglaze 2 in order to allow restructuring of the company as a going concern. As part of this process it was necessary for Uniglaze 2 to enter into a creditors voluntary arrangement (CVA) which it did with the full backing of the company’s creditors. As a local and respected sealed unit manufacturer Uniglaze 2 was well known to SGH and as such was able to seek their support to secure the immediate future of the business and in doing so help protect the jobs of the local 300+ workforce.
 
Despite making every effort to guide the business toward a more secure future, market conditions worsened and unfortunately in the relatively short period of trading following the restructuring, Uniglaze 2 experienced further difficulties aggravated by a loss of turnover due to a number of clients becoming insolvent. This left the business with significant bad debt and coupled to the encumbrance of substantial repayments to the company’s historic creditors placed increasing pressure on the business. With the company in a position of negative cash flow it quickly became evident that it would be unable to continue to trade without a further significant capital injection.

After much deliberation and exhausting all realistic alternatives the directors of SGH Ltd regrettably concluded that it was not in the best interests of their core business activities to provide the additional funding that would be required, particularly as there seemed little prospect of the situation improving in light of prevailing market conditions with attendant depressed prices and margins. This left Uniglaze 2 with no alternative other than to place the business in administration.
 
The directors of SGH Ltd have become aware of some speculation on the potential impact that the closure of Uniglaze 2 might have on their main business interests. Most particularly they would like to make it clear that Swift Frame Limited, the long established and successful PVCU frames manufacturing company has no association with Uniglaze 2 and continues with its normal day to day operations remaining financially unaffected in any way by this unfortunate event.
 
Terry Rush, Managing Director
On behalf of Swift Group Holdings Limited