UK engineering firm collapses into administration after 60 years in business

Compact Orbital Gears Limited, founded in 1964, supplied gearboxes and test rigs for the automotive and aerospace sectors and is based in Powys, Wales

A British manufacturing firm established over six decades ago has gone into administration. Compact Orbital Gears Limited, which was set up in 1964, functions as a highly specialised engineering business.

The company designs, manufactures, and supplies gearboxes and test rigs. Test rigs are machines employed to assess how effectively other equipment functions before real-world deployment.

While its main focus has been the automotive and aerospace industries, the firm has also previously provided components for other industrial uses, including wind turbines.

According to The Gazette, Andrew Turpin and Matthew Douglas Hardy from the insolvency practice Poppleton & Appleby were appointed as joint administrators on March 13. The company officially registered its office in Birmingham, while its main manufacturing and trading premises operated from the Brynberth Industrial Estate in Rhayader, Powys.

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Following their appointment, an official notice was published in The Gazette on May 7, confirming that a virtual meeting of the company’s creditors has been arranged for 11am on June 2. The main purpose of the meeting will be to establish a creditors’ committee.

The collapse underscores a wider period of uncertainty throughout the UK’s industrial supply chain. During late 2025 and into early 2026, the manufacturing industry has been under mounting pressure from soaring operational costs, supply chain disruptions, and increasingly squeezed profit margins, reports the Express.

A number of other long-standing businesses have recently buckled under comparable financial pressures. In February, British aerospace firm Orbex also went into administration.