Commercial Property News South Africa

Castellano-Beltrame building up for auction

The vacant Woodbrook factory of the once prosperous textile company Castellano-Beltrame will go under the hammer at the end of the month.

Auction Alliance will be conducting the auction on 29 July 2010 at 11am.

The powerful local manufacturing and retailing business was in January this year wound up in the Grahamstown High Court at the request of director and shareholder Franco Beltrame, who had personally lent the company more than R17 million in a desperate attempt to keep it afloat.

In an affidavit in support of the winding up, Beltrame said the company was unable to pay its debts.

The order marked a heartbreaking end to a family-owned business established in 1965.

For four decades, the internationally acclaimed company had produced and exported quality decorative trimmings.

Talks of a potential government bailout at the time came to nought and more than 300 people lost their jobs after the company closed its doors.

Also in January, Castellano-Beltrame chief executive officer Vic Beltrame and director Steven Heywood said they were looking into the possibility of starting up another company in the textile field.

Border-Kei Chamber of Business chief executive Les Holbrook said yesterday, 5 July, that while it was "sad" that such a "landmark" company had to close in the face of cheap Chinese imports and the recession of last year, he believed that the auction was inevitable due to the liquidation, and that there should be many willing buyers.

Auction Alliance's Mike Bosch said: "The property, which is being sold as part of a liquidation matter, has attracted considerable interest from local investors."

Source: Daily Dispatch

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Additional reporting by Adrienne Carlisle and Michelle Solomon.
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