Erinaceous takeover by Eddison offers Manchester staff hope

The fate of the Manchester staff of collapsed services group Erinaceous appeared safer after Leeds-based Eddisons bought the firm from administrators.

Eddisons, which has an existing Manchester office, reportedly paid £1 for the property management, facilities management and landlord and tenant teams of Erinaceous.

In a statement Eddisons said: "We are pleased to announce that leading firm of chartered surveyors Eddisons, has successfully concluded the purchase of the business and assets of the property management, facilities management and landlord and tenant teams from Erinaceous Group.

"The teams will continue to operate from their existing premises in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow with the full support and involvement of their management team and support staff in order to provide a seamless transfer of services to all their clients."

Eddisons has 100 staff in Leeds, Manchester, Huddersfield and Bradford. No-one from Erinaceous or Eddisons would confirm how many of the Manchester staff worked in the divisions acquired by Eddisons.

The takeover follows a management buy-out of Eddisons by managing director, Nigel McDonald and director Richard Roe last weekend.

Last year saw a spate of departures from Erinaceous in Manchester, chief among them agency directors Gallagher, Paul Daye and Phil Meakin who went on to form P3 Property Consultants.

Erinaceous went into administration this morning owing £250m to lenders. Takeover talks are ongoing for other individual businesses within the group.