Witham firm moves to Braintree

4:59pm Thursday 4th December 2008

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A new company has started up and taken on a section of a Witham workforce who were made redundant in June.

Icon Office Furniture is currently based on Witham’s Eastways industrial estate, but the firm is in the process of moving to Braintree.

The company bought the intellectual property rights of furniture making firm JF Nott, which went into administration in June.

When JF Nott went into administration, 125 jobs were lost, but Adrian Buckingham, chief executive of Icon Office Furniture, said he employed about 40 people and some used to work at the Witham factory.

“It is good news, as we often hear about bad news and companies going down for whatever reason. Those things do happen, but the long and short of it is that something is going back,” said Mr Buckingham.

The company is moving machinery from Witham to a 45,000sq ft retail unit in Bradbury Drive, on Braintree’s Springwood industrial estate.

Mr Buckingham said: “We bought the intellectual property rights and stock of JF Nott and we put it together with Tag International.

“The company is of a size that it will probably survive because it is a small company, so the overheads are less, but it’s a capable company.”

Mr Buckingham added that he would like to take on some more staff and would welcome contact from old JF Nott employees.

“We are being cautious as we don’t want to expand too quickly, but in the future we would be looking for sales staff and administration staff, and people to work in finance and assembly,” he said.

Dave Arnott, chairman of Witham’s chamber of trade, said: “I’m chuffed that some people have managed to return.

“It is a shame they are moving from Witham, but it is important, especially at the moment, that people stay in employment, so it is brilliant news.”