A FIREPLACE manufacturer, operating in Blackburn for nearly 30 years, is in the process of being wound up, amid staff concerns over unpaid wages.

Workers at Shadsworth Fireplaces, in Thwaites Close, which has traded as Brilliant Fires, are waiting to hear from insolvency experts whether they will be paid for their last five weeks’ service.

Staff have known for some time that the firm, run by James Wright, was under threat after the Shadsworth Business Park premises was sold.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Now insolvency practitioners Leonard Curtis has called a creditors’ meeting for Shadsworth Fireplaces Ltd at its offices in Elms Square, Whitefield, for April 30, from 2.30pm.

One worker, who asked not to be named, said: “The factory was sold for around £1.2 million and Jim Wright told us that they were moving everything to Cheshire this year.

“We have been given paperwork now by the administrators and we’ve been told to fill it out and we’ll just have to wait.”

Around 30 employees are believed to have worked for the company at its height but there is now thought to be around a dozen staff remaining.

Mr Wright was unavailable for comment at the Shadsworth premises yesterday.

The same company has also had a longstanding display in the home furnishings section at Oswaldtwistle Mills. In a statement released last November, the company said: “We have sold our existing building and we will be moving to our new factory with larger showroom facilities in spring 2015. We plan to have more than 80 working displays, with a large display of our new 3D electric fires.”

No-one was also available for comment at insolvency firm Leonard Curtis.

Joint administrators from another company, Duff & Phelps, were appointed in September 2010 for another fireplace manufacturer run by Mr Wright, LFL Group Ltd, trading as Brilliant Fires from the same location in Shadsworth. The LFL Group was placed into liquidation finally in April 2011.