During LAMMA show week, RECO held an open sale to dispose of remaining stock, engineering tools and parts store fixtures and fittings as the company winds down towards final closure. The 60-years old company has successfully reduced its whole-goods and parts stock from the £3.6 million-worth held at the end of August when the closure plan was announced to about £0.5 million, mainly comprising Kioti tractor spares and Brevi power harrows and flail mowers. Chairman and managing director Richard Ruston praised staff members for their supportive response in a difficult situation. “We went through a long period of uncertainty as different options were explored but once the decision to close had been taken, everyone buckled down to doing whatever had to be done,” he says. “Although my principal responsibility was to the shareholders, I also felt a similar responsibility to the people who helped create and sustain the business. I’m comforted that several members of our team already have new jobs and no-one has had to leave,” he adds. “Most of those who remain will finish at the end of January, leaving a skeleton staff to finish up.” Plans six years ago for Mr Ruston to take a back-seat after 35 years working in the family business were scuppered when the company slipped in less than four years from making good profits to losses of more than £1 million. The company became profitable again in the first year after he took up the reins once more and started planning the company’s future after a proposed management buyout came to nothing. “I was hopeful that the business would be bought as a going concern, either by new investors or by one of our suppliers taking on a ready-made UK distribution company,” he explains. “But despite initial interest, none of these prospects materialised. Once Sulky-Burel decided to do their own thing and AGCO chose to put Fella equipment through their own dealers – which together accounted for 20-25 per cent of our business – I could see no option but to close.” RECO ceased trading at the end of October, when Sulky-Burel started its own distribution company for the UK. The Strautmann franchise has moved to Opico, and this week it emerged that Halse of Honiton, a large dealership in Devon, has become the national importer for Ovlac, the Spanish plough and tillage equipment manufacturer. Kioti’s Dutch importer is understood to be setting up a UK branch for the compact tractors. “It’s sad for everyone to see the business close after such a long time,” says Richard Ruston. “But rather than holding a wake, we’re having a party for staff members past and present to celebrate RECO’s successes over the past 60 years, to say ‘thank you’ for their dedication to the company and its customers, and to wish them well in their future careers.”