Cladding Consultants had their proposals to rescue Stone Firms’ Portland limestone business accepted at a creditors meeting on 10 December.

Cladding Consultants own most of the assets of Stone Firms, one of two companies on Portland that quarry the island’s famous limestone. Stone Firms went into Administration in September.

Last month, Cladding Consultants re-opened the Easton Road factory that Stone Firms had been moving into when Administrators were appointed and Director Geoff Smith is now confident he will also be able to resume quarrying in the New Year when equipment taken away from the quarries by the Administrators from KPMG is returned.

However, Neil Fuller, Director of Stone Firms, says there are 10,000m³ of stone already extracted on the floors of Stone Firms’ three quarries that will be sold off in the New Year at half their normal price to generate cash flow.

The rescue of the business comes in the form of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which enables a company to reach a compromise with its unsecured creditors on the repayments of debts overseen by a third party, in this case the Administrators.

Cladding Consultants had originally hoped to repay all debt in full, but now say they will repay a “substantial amount” in the pound.

The CVA was the option preferred by creditors of three presented to them at the meeting on 10 December, held at Eastcliffe Hotel, Bournemouth.

A Creditors Committee was elected that includes Michael Poultney, the Managing Director of the other Portland stone producers, Albion Stone. He was owed money by Stone Firms because he had sawn some stone for them while they were moving factory.

Geoff Smith says he is glad a competitor is among the five people on the Creditors Committee because it will reinforce the legitimacy of the proposal.

Stone Firms had employed about 60 people, nearly all of whom lost their jobs when the Administrators were appointed.

A few of them have been employed by Albion Stone but Cladding Consultants hope most of the others will return to their former jobs.

Initially, at least, the business will trade under the name of Cladding Consultants, although they say they will review the trading name later next year.

Geoff Smith says: “The main thing is we are back in business. It’s all looking pretty positive.”