Receiver appointed to Marlborough

David Hughes of Ernst & Young has been appointed receiver to the Marlborough Group and its shares have been suspended on the Dublin and London stock markets.

The company said that trading had been very difficult in the past two months and it was not able to fund ongoing operations. It had been close to completing a deal for the sale of past of its UK operations. However, one of the purchasers had withdrawn and so the restructuring of the group had collapsed.

Marlborough has been suffering from the economic downturn and the drying up of demand for its services.

It issued the first of a number of profit warnings at the beginning of 2001. It set up an online recruitment site but later closed it at a loss. The company cut jobs but still made a loss. It now employs 200 people in Ireland and 100 in the UK.