Wed, 22 Oct 2025 | ADMINISTRATION
Administrators are seeking a buyer for the business and assets (including brand names and intellectual property) of a prominent agricultural machinery firm. Lincolnshire-based Chafer Machinery Limited filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators earlier this month and has now formally appointed Ryan Holdsworth and Danielle Shore of Leonard Curtis as joint administrators.
The company trades under the Chafer and Horstine brands and was founded in 1901. Chafer is an established agricultural engineering brand, known for its high-performance self-propelled and trailed crop sprayers, which are designed and built at its manufacturing site in Gainsborough.
Under the Horstine brand, meanwhile, the company supplies precision applicators and provides innovative fertiliser and granular chemical application systems that are used in agricultural settings worldwide.
Despite being a longstanding, established brand with a deal network spanning the length of the UK, the company was hit by adverse market conditions, with joint administrator Ryan Holdsworth saying the agricultural sector “has faced numerous challenges over recent years, to which both brands have not been immune”.
Upon their appointment on October 16, the joint administrators instructed BPI Asset Advisory to manage the sale of the business and assets of both brands. The private treaty sale includes the brand names of both companies, intellectual property, manufacturing and assembly equipment, proprietary software and design data, as well as extensive stock valued at around £1.4 million.
BPI’s Luke Hartshorn said: "Together, these assets present a significant opportunity for potential purchasers to acquire well-established British engineering brands with strong reputations in the sector."
Stating that the brands had “developed a strong presence in the farming community over many decades”, Ryan Holdsworth said the joint administrators expect “considerable interest from buyers looking to continue the existing brand legacy of quality and high performance or integrate the product range into existing operations."
BPI Asset Advisory is inviting expressions of interest in all or part of the business and assets by 2pm on Friday 24 October 2025.
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