United Tooling Solutions, Grahams Machinery Sales enter administration

United Tooling Solutions Limited and Grahams Machinery Sales Limited have entered administration after liquidity constraints and unsuccessful efforts to raise additional funding left the industrial supplies businesses unable to continue trading at their previous scale. Kris Aspin, Lucy Winterborne and Sam Woodward of EY-Parthenon were appointed joint administrators on 18 June 2026 by the companies’ directors.

The businesses supplied tooling, maintenance, repair and operations consumables and industrial equipment through a nationwide network of 11 branches. Together, they employed more than 135 people and traded under brands including Scott Direct, Grahams Machinery Sales, Drakes Tooling & Abrasives, and others.

The companies encountered mounting liquidity pressure following a prolonged period of difficult trading. Management sought additional financing to support the businesses’ longer-term operations, but those efforts did not produce the required funding.

United Tooling Solutions and Grahams Machinery Sales have now largely ceased trading. The administrators are assessing options to realise value from the businesses and their assets, although they have not disclosed whether a sale process is underway or whether any of the branch operations or trading brands could be preserved.

75 employees were made redundant immediately following the appointments. A smaller group has been retained to assist the administrators, who said support and advice were being provided to affected workers.

United Tooling Solutions, based in Blaby, Leicestershire, was incorporated in 2015 and operated as a national distributor of machine tools and industrial consumables. Grahams Machinery Sales, which was incorporated in 2011, operated from the same registered office and formed part of the wider trading network.

The administrators have not yet disclosed the companies’ secured debt, total creditor claims, asset values or expected returns to creditors.