An East Midlands market gardening enterprise has been wiped out by last year's summer floods. Now the remaining assets of Barrow Growers Limited are to be auctioned off next Tuesday (February 19) at the firm's premises in Sinfin Lane, Barrow on Trent, near Derby.
More than 175 lots, including agricultural plant & machinery, tractors, planting & irrigation equipment, insulated vans and polytunnels, are being disposed of.
The sale will be conducted by plant & machinery specialists from King Sturge, who were commissioned to carry out the auction on the instructions of the joint liquidators, John Russell and Gareth Rusling of The P&A Partnership, insolvency and corporate recovery practitioners.
During the summer, Barrow Growers had 400 acres of land under cultivation, growing salad crops, while in winter months it packaged foreign-grown produce for supermarket clients.
Auctioneer Gary Harper, of King Sturge, said: "It is a heart-breaking tale. Profit margins are tight enough anyway in the market garden trade but last year's floods and a poor summer tipped Barrow Growers over the edge. It lost more than one-third of its crops because of the bad weather."
He added: "We expect a lot of interest in the auction, which will be conducted as a traditional 'walk-around' sale."
Barrow Growers had ten full-time staff and employed overseas students during the season to collect crops.
Potential buyers will have an opportunity to inspect sale items on the day of the auction from 9 am. The auction commences at 12 noon.
