FRP Advisory partners and Chris Stirland, and Philip Watkins and FRP Advisory director Nathan Jones have been appointed as joint administrators to Q Cold Ltd, a Herefordshire-based food manufacturer and packaging firm.

Q Cold went into administration following a sharp deterioration in trading conditions. FRP Advisory says the company will continue to trade while the joint administrators seek a purchaser for the ongoing business, but redundancies among the 40 staff are likely.

Chris Stirland, partner at FRP Advisory, and joint administrator, said: 'Q Cold was a solid, profitable company that specialises in suet production alongside a packaging operation. The company suffered from the recent termination of a key supply contract with a major customer which had accounted for around half of the company's turnover. The supply contract termination, together with an ongoing dispute with HMRC relating to the reimbursement to the company of overpaid VAT monies relating to that supply contract, has put a squeeze on cashflow.'