Merseyside supercar brake disc maker Surface Transforms collapses into administration following the loss of its biggest client as efforts to find a buyer and raise fresh equity end in failure. Tony McDonough reports
Supercar brake disc maker Surface Transforms has finally collapsed into administration weeks after the devastating loss of its biggest customer.
Knowsley-based ST had issued three notices of intention (NOI) to appoint administrators in the last few weeks. This gave it time to either seek a buyer for the business or raise fresh equity.
However, despite interest from potential buyers both of those hopes have now been dashed and the company has appointed Michael Magnay, Jonathan Marston, and Joanna Bull of Alvarez & Marsal Europe as joint administrators.
It was the development the directors and the 170 employees of the company had feared. It also throws into doubt repayment of a £13.2m ERDF loan via Liverpool City Region Combined Authority which it has already drawn down. ST also owes around £400,000 from an earlier £1m Combined Authority loan.
ST manufactures carbon fibre reinforced ceramic automotive brake discs for high performance cars. Customers of the business include, or have included, Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin.
In the last two years it has struggled with the challenges of ramping up production and had burned through significant volumes of cash. At the beginning this year it was showing signs of having put those struggles behind it.
However, on March 3 ST said it had lost a contract with global automotive giant General Motors (GM). In 2025 GM accounted for £15.3m in sales – 84% of ST’s revenues and 85% of all its brake discs but said it would source its brake discs elsewhere from March 31.
It believed it had a contract with the US carmaker until 2030 and had received operational support and financial assistance including advance payments of £14.4m.
ST was listed on the Alternative Investment Market and in a statement to the stock exchange on Wednesday afternoon, it said that Alvarez & Marsal Europe had sought to find a buyer for the business on its behalf.
They had “engaged with a number of interested parties regarding a potential offer for the business and assets of the company”.
It added: “However, no committed offer for the business and assets of the company or committed offer for the ordinary share capital of the company has been received. Accordingly, the Company has terminated discussions with all parties.”
On efforts to raise new funding, it also said: “The company appointed Zeus Capital to act as placing agent to explore the possibility of an equity financing solution.
“For a number of reasons including required conditions to be satisfied to permit an equity solution, the board concluded that this process was not deliverable.”
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Following their appointment, the joint administrators will manage the affairs of the company for the purposes of achieving a better result for creditors as a whole than would be likely if the company were wound up.
It is not expected that the administration process will result in any returns to shareholders. Following the appointment of joint administrators, Ian Cleminson, Julia Woodhouse, Mathew Taylor and Paul Marr have resigned as directors of ST with immediate effect.