3,000 jobs in jeopardy after Albert Fisher calls in receiver

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Food supplier Albert Fisher has collapsed into receivership threatening 3,000 jobs. The loss-making business, which had debts of £93m, had failed to reach an agreement with its lenders. The shares were suspended at 2p yesterday, valuing the business at just £14m.

The collapse ends a 20-year rollercoaster ride for the company which started out as a tiny fruit and vegetable distributor and was built into a £1bn business during a huge acquisition binge in the 1980s.

In the end, though, it had developed an unenviable reputation for profits warnings blamed on increasingly unlikely events. Its excuses included frozen cockle beds off The Netherlands, failed English pea harvests, a poor lettuce crop, import controls on Indian prawns and even the El Niño effect.

KPMG has been appointed as receivers and said it hoped to conclude a swift sale in order to minimise job losses. Of the 3,000 total staff, 770 are employed in Aberdeenshire producing prepared fish, 400 in King's Lynn producing frozen vegetables including 30 per cent of the UK pea crop, and 660 in Norfolk making salads.

Mick McLoughlin, corporate recovery partner at KPMG, said: "We are continuing to trade the business as normal. Given the strong market position of the company, we are hopeful of concluding a sale of each of the businesses quickly to secure as many jobs as possible."

He said he had received "scores" of calls already from interested parties – some interested in the whole group; others in parts of the business, which has three divisions, seafood, chilled and frozen.

Albert Fisher was originally a small fruit and vegetable firm in Manchester but was transformed in the early 1980s when it was used by entrepreneur Tony Millar as an acquisition vehicle. Mr Millar, who spent his formative years with former Conservative Party treasurer and owner of ADT, Michael Ashcroft, became chairman of the group and used it to build market share in the fragmented fruit and vegetable market.

But the business was dogged by poor crop yields and weather-related disasters. Chief executives came and went including Stephen Walls, Neil England and more recently, Terry Robinson, a former right hand man of Lonrho boss Tiny Rowland.

Last year Albert Fisher recorded a loss of £13m on sales of £710m. The company had not recorded a profit since 1997, and accumulated losses over the past four years totalled £230m. It issued a profit warning in January blaming price deflation in frozen produce and fish. It issued another in March at which point the group's bankers said they were reviewing the company's financing arrangements.