THE owner of a hot air balloon company in Oswestry has confirmed his staff have lost their jobs because it has gone into liquidation.

Lindstrand Technologies owner Per Lindstrand has confirmed to The Advertizer that staff at the business, based at the Mile Oak Industrial Estate in Oswestry, were let go amid the cost of legal action being taken against the company in Australia.

But Mr Lindstrand says a separate company which owns intellectual property around his wealth of balloon knowledge remains intact, and he hopes to deliver good news in the coming weeks.

The company was put into voluntary liquidation after being hit with a legal bill of nearly £2 million, and Mr Lindstrand insisted the job losses were part of the ‘normal process of liquidation’.

OTHER NEWS:

He said: “Lindstrand Technologies were exposed to a lawsuit from Australia which we originally classified as trivial but the Australians hired a top lawyer in London while I defended myself.

“To our great surprise they won 100 per cent of their claim. We tried to appeal the case but the appeal was turned down.

“We were faced with a demand for £1.83 million to be paid within 10 days or they would put our company in liquidation.

“Our only option was to go into voluntary liquidation in order to control things better and that is where we are today.”

Mr Lindstrand, who piloted billionaire Sir Richard Branson on his famous round-the-world adventures, added that only one of his two companies has gone into liquidation – Technologies – with the part of the business that owns the rights to all of his hot air balloon designs not part of the process.   

And he added that he hopes to turn the business around with a confirmed buyer ‘within weeks’.

He said: “There are two companies in this business – Lindstrand Technologies Ltd that owns the land and building in our estate and this is the company in liquidation.

“The other company is Lindstrand Group which owns all the equipment and all the design rights and IP.

“This company is not involved in the liquidation.

“We are working with the liquidator to find a buyer for Technologies and so far we have three interested parties.

Get in touch

Share your views on this story by sending a letter to the editor. To get in touch email news@bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk, or fill in the form on this section of our website.

“Hopefully we will have some good news in a couple of weeks.”

The news of the liquidation comes after a North Wales-based attraction served a winding-up petition on the firm.

ZIP World, in Rhyl, has issued a winding-up petition on a well-known Oswestry company which made its “Skyflyer” attraction which it had planned to bring to the seafront.