Administrators called in at Belfast engineering firm

An engineering company employing 75 workers has gone into administration after getting into financial difficulties.

Scott ElectroMech Ltd, in east Belfast, manufactured electric motors which have been used around the world – in such diverse places as Formula 1 wind tunnels, Colorado ski-lifts and Chinese sugar refineries.

Robin Dunbar, one of the owners, said: “We had a bad year last year and made a loss. We had been due to move to new premises next month and had been paying double rent on the old plant and the new place and that made it worse.”

Efforts to sell the company as a going concern failed and Ernst & Young was called in as administrator after the workforce was told last Friday the company was closing.

Mr Dunbar said: “There is no chance of selling it as a going concern in its present form but the administrator is in negotiations to sell off bits of the company.”

An engineering company has operated under the Scott name on the Ravenhill Road for more than 100 years. A Danish company owned the firm from 1982 until 2004, when it was taken over by local management, including Mr Dunbar.