John Whitfield and Jason Godefroy of Duff & Phelps were appointed as joint administrators of the Saxmundham, Suffolk-based firm last Thursday (6 November).
Eight employees have been kept on and the business is currently operating with a skeleton staff as administrators work to find a potential buyer.
In a statement the administrators said: “The company... is continuing to trade on a limited basis whilst the joint administrators are in talks with interested parties.
“As a result of the administration the majority of employees have been made redundant, with eight employees retained.”
A former employee told local newspaper East Anglian Daily Times: “We’d known for several weeks that things were in trouble, but last Thursday we were called in to be given the news.
“In the last 10 years there has been a lack of investment in the face of pressure from the Far East. Things must have just spiralled down. We were asked to take a voluntary 10% pay cut 15 months ago.”
The firm reported a turnover of £17.2m in its latest accounts, for the year ended 30 September 2013. This was made up of £11.1m domestic sales and £6.1m from outside the UK. This was down 14% from a 2012 turnover of £20.1m, which was made up of £13.1m domestic sales and £7m from outside the UK.
In the accounts the directors said: “Sales dropped by 14% compared to the prior year, with challenges arising from exchange rate movements encouraging increased in activity from European competitors and increased capacity in the marketplace fuelling an influx of cheaper products.
“Gross profit decreased due to quality issues from two major overseas suppliers forcing the purchase of more expensive materials for a period during the year.”
The business incurred a net loss of £750,000 during the year and, at that date, had net current liabilities of £562,000.
In a note on the accounts from accountants they highlighted "the existence of uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern".
Tenza Technologies, which was established in the 1960s as an embossing tape manufacturer, supplies self-adhesives, particularly label stock laminates, document enclosed self adhesives and book protection products to distributors, resellers and wholesalers globally.
The company was taken over by the Tri Q Group in 2005 and Cheltenham-based Co-Spec then acquired the company, along with its sister company Advanced Coated Products, in 2013 as part of a management buy-out backed by Tri Q.
Co-Spec and Advanced Coated Products are unaffected by the administration of Tenza.
