Fallen Norbain yanked from administration

KPMG flogs UK assets of physical security distributor to Newbury Investments and touts remaining overseas operations

Physical security distributor Norbain Group's UK business has been rescued from administration by Newbury Investments, securing the jobs of its 250 staff.

The Reading-based CCTV and IP video specialist, which supplies about 7,000 installation firms and resellers, hit the buffers following a decline in orders, administrator KPMG said.

KPMG is still seeking buyers for Norbain's businesses in South Africa, Benelux and Portugal but had no problem flogging the firm's UK assets, which generate the lion's share of its £100m-plus annual sales.

KPMG joint administrator Will Wright said Norbain had been adversely affected by falling orders as customers put infrastructure investments on ice.

The deal with Newbury Investments – which was conducted on 29 June, the same day Norbain went into administration – secured the ongoing trading of the company. All UK staff have transferred to the purchaser.

"This deal marks a fresh start for the Norbain UK business and puts it on a more solid footing for the future," said Wright.

"We received a great deal of interest from buyers keen to turn the business' fortunes around. We are pleased that the process we ran allowed the company to avoid a full operational administration via a ‘pre-pack', securing the UK jobs and protecting precious value."

Newbury Investments UK is a £320m giant with five trading subsidiaries: Deta Electrical Company, Decco, Stearn Electric Co, UK Cables and UK Electric.

A representative for Norbain, whose vendor partnerships include Tyco, Samsung and Axis, said there would be no changes to how the firm is run.

Barry Shakespeare, managing director of Norbain SD Ltd, said: "We are confident that Norbain's best-in-class operations, combined with Newbury Investments' financial strength and complementary distribution experience, will secure our future growth strategy."

Dave Ellis, director of new technologies at Computerlinks, which distributes video surveillance vendor Mobotix, said the distributor's physical security business is healthy.

"We have some technologies in that space but they form part of our overall next-generation datacentre solution," he said. "We did not conflict with Norbain, as our focus has always been IP-based, rather than coming at it from the analogue side."

KPMG said parties interested in discussing Norbain's remaining assets should contact the administrator on 0121 232 3000.