Business is booming at a workplace staffed entirely with ex-employees of troubled Lloyd Loom of Spalding.
The majority owner and managing director of Lloyd Loom Manufacturing Ltd is former Lloyd Loom of Spalding sales manager Steve Duncan.
He and four other colleagues are now making a living producing the high-end handmade furniture for the trade market from a unit at Stumps Lane Business Park in Spalding.
Mr Duncan (51) started the firm on his own after being made redundant from Lloyd Loom of Spalding in 2013.
Having been there seven years, Mr Duncan claims he was regularly bringing in £12,000 of business each week but lost his job just five days after Anthony Draxler acquired the business, having never met him.
Mr Duncan said: “I thought I’d joined a company for life and for a number of years I did very well. But a lot of good people have left the Lloyd Loom market.”
Last month Mr Draxler cleared the Wardentree Lane premises, moving production to Romania and temporarily laying off staff in the process.
However, custom at Lloyd Loom Manufacturing Ltd has been steadily growing and the workforce is expected to double within the next 12 months. Currently a paint sprayer and an office administrator are needed.
Mr Duncan said: “I believe in the product. I had a good customer base [at Lloyd Loom of Spalding] and a lot kept in touch with me, telling me that they couldn’t get the product.”
The demise of his former workplace saddened but did not surprise Mr Duncan. Setting up his own business and opening the Spalding unit in October 2014 has proved a testing but satisying experience.
He said: “Now we’re on a bit of a roll here. This time next year I want double the number of staff.”
