Today's most viewed
| LATEST NEWS | | | | | | READERS' LETTERS | | | |
|
|
|
Light goes out on cooker firm
A COOKER company that once enjoyed a £2million turnover has ceased trading.
Cheshire Cookers closed and customers were unable to contact the owner.
Staff at the business, based on the Stanley Road Industrial Estate off Stanley Road, Knutsford, were unavailable to comment.
Customers who called the company got an answer phone message.
"As of April 30th 2008 Cheshire Cookers has ceased trading," said a woman.
Last week it emerged Cheshire Cookers had been sold about three months ago.
On Friday the former owner, Loyd Hitchmough, said the company allegedly owed him money, although he would not say how much.
He said Cheshire Cookers had been a healthy business when he sold it.
"I'm nothing to do with them whatsoever now," he said.
"I'm just as surprised as everyone else and I'm just as keen to resolve the matter."
Mr Hitchmough founded Cheshire Cookers about 13 years ago after he was forced to travel 234 miles to find his own reconditioned Aga.
In 2004 he told the Guardian the company enjoyed a £2million turnover, employed 15 people and sold more than 500 cookers a year. Last week Companies House said Cheshire Cookers was still a registered business.
But one customer fears he may have lost hundreds of pounds.
The man, who did not want to be named, paid Cheshire Cookers to remove his old Aga and replace it with a new one.
He may be able to reclaim his deposit from his credit card company but he also traded in his old cooker to get money off and now fears that cash may be lost.
It is believed Cheshire Cookers' staff were still working in a customer's home about three weeks ago. Some customers did not know the company had ceased trading until Thursday.
8:58am Friday 9th May 2008
Print 
Email this
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!