As MT went to press it was confirmed that rail freight business Caledonian Express (Railfreight) is insolvent and will go into administration shortly. Insolvency specialist Armstrong Watson says a notice of intention to appoint administrators was lodged on 23 January. It is expected Caledonian will be in administration by 6 February.
Caledonian entered into a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in February 2007 PalletTrack MD Nigel Parkes says it provided work for it during this time: "If we had pulled our traffic, the CVA would have collapsed we took the moral high ground."
However, Caledonian was dropped from the PalletTrack network after it notified Parkes of its latest financial problems. He adds: "We were not comfortable with the current situation." A letter from Clarion Solicitors to a creditor says Caledonian director John Nixon "is interested in making an offer for the assets".