AN ADMINISTRATOR has been called in to manage the financial affairs of an old established Yarmouth business.
Harwoods ironmongers and yacht chandlery, which dates back to 1893, went into administration this week. It is being marketed as a going concern and continues to be run by a manager and two part-time members of staff.
Administrator James Thickell was called in by the owner of the freehold, Susan Robinson, as a secured creditor.
Harwoods had been run by Phillip Stovold, who claimed he had pumped more than £180,000 into the business in the past three years.
Mr Stovold, who now lives in Andalucia, southern Spain, said: "This is a tragedy for us and our children. We have devoted our lives to building up Harwoods and invested our home and everything we owned into helping it through these difficult times.
"We have managed to pull the business through this winter and 2010 was the year finally everything was going to start making sense.
"Harwoods was in a critical and seriously indebted state in August 2002, despite being a successful and profitable business, and it has been a very tough challenge turning that around, unfortunately one we cannot now complete."
Mr Stovold was also a director of high-profile water activities company X-Isle Sports, which went under last year owing money to people who had paid for activities holidays.
Reporter: richardw@iwcpmail.co.uk