A COMPANY run by a top councillor has gone bust with the loss of almost 20 jobs.

Food supply company Bellows Direct Food Services has filed for administration with almost £1 million owed to creditors.

The firm, which recently moved from Southampton to Romsey, was run by Dan Fitzhenry, deputy leader of Southampton’s Conservative councillors and spokesman for economic development.

He described the moment he had to tell his members of staff they had lost their jobs as “horrible”, with all 18 workers laid off at a meeting on Thursday.

It brings to an end almost a century of Cllr Fitzhenry’s family trading in fresh produce, with five generations involved in the business which began with the door-to-door sale of Alresford watercress in the early 1900s.

He said the company, which started delivering fresh produce in its current format in 2009, had “grown rapidly” to the point last year where it was delivering to about 250 organisations ranging from restaurants and hotels to the Ageas Bowl and Hampshire County Council.

Among the goods provided to contractors were fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, frozen and dry products and cheeses.

Cllr Fitzhenry, who was managing director as well as owning 51 per cent of the business, officially registered as S J Bellows Nurseries Ltd, said that to keep up with the growing demand an investment deal for a private individual to pump in more funding had been struck.

However much of the agreed investment failed to materialise and left the company in difficulties that it was ultimately unable to resolve.

In the last year of operation debts to various suppliers had built up, with debts adding up to £950,000 including payments owed to 30 creditors, as well as an extra £50,000 owed to Cllr Fitzhenry.

The firm only moved to new premises in the Romsey Industrial Estate in January, after its previous offices in Queensway, Southampton, were earmarked for demolition to to make way for hundreds of new flats in the Fruit and Vegetable Market development.

Cllr Fitzhenry, a former cabinet member under the city council’s previous Conservative administration, said he had repaid much of the money owed to creditors, but said it was unlikely any outstanding debts could now be paid.

The Harefield councillor, who said he has been unpaid for his work since last summer, said his staff were paid until the end of March and that he had found interviews and potential positions for “70-80 per cent” of his staff at competitors.

“It’s been a very gruelling process,”, he said.

“The most difficult bit is looking at the people who have been so supportive and proud of what we we did, and worked so hard, and having to tell them that you couldn’t do it, that you couldn’t save what you needed to save.

“Last year we knew that we had grown too quickly and that caused problems, but it’s only in the last few weeks we realised the investment deal wasn’t going to work so we were trying to find a mechanism for someone to buy the business.

“I’ve tried my hardest and worked as hard as I can to take my business from a difficult position for the benefit of my staff and creditors, and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Daily Echo:

THE administration is being handled by Southampton-based Quantuma.

Joint administrator Simon Campbell said: “In the short time that we’ve been advising the company, we have made every effort to protect the business and preserve value for the creditors of the company.

“However, we were unable to hold the customer base together to effect a sale of the business. We will be corresponding with creditors to advise them of our next steps shortly”

Jason Gould, general manager of Portsmouth-based food import company La Espanola, said his firm had been owed £4,500 but that was reduced to £1,100.

He said that he did not expect the remaining balance to be paid off, saying: “It’s just frustrating.

“We are a small business and if we were to lose £4,500 we could have gone out of business, so we are lucky to a degree to get down to £1,100 although we will have to work more to make that up.

“I feel sorry for the staff at Bellows because they are really nice.”