Somerset fruit harvesting machinery firm that supplied goods to Royal Family falls into administration

SFM Technology was founded in 1985 and was awarded a Royal Warrant in 2012

An agricultural machinery company in Somerset that once supplied goods to the Royal Family has fallen into administration.

SFM Technology was established in the village of Martock in 1985 as a fruit harvesting equipment business but by the late 1990s had expanded into other sectors, such as aerospace and automotive, as it developed its engineering offering.

In 2012, the firm was awarded a Royal Warrant – a document that permits a company to use the Royal Arms in connection with its business and supply goods or services to the royal household.

The company now offers a number of services including design, research and development, manufacturing, 3D printing and powder coating, and counts the Ministry of Defence and Orchard Pig Cider among its customers.

A recent notice on the Gazette – the official public record – states that SFM Technology Limited appointed Andy John and Miles Needham of FRP Advisory as joint administrators on May 15. It follows a petition to wind up the company in October 2025 that was launched by HMRC.

According to Companies House, compulsory action to strike the business off the register was suspended in March. If a company is struck off, it ceases to exist as a legal entity.

SFM Technology’s status on Companies House currently says there is an ‘active proposal to strike off’. Its latest accounts are also overdue.

The director of the company is Richard Whittington who was appointed to the business in 1996 and is based in Yeovil.

Latest available accounts for SFM Technology, which are for the year ending December 2023, show the company had £2.1m owing to creditors falling due within one year of that period – up from £1.75m in 2022. At the time, the company had net assets of £1.76m.

The accounts also reveal there were 33 employees working for the company in 2023 – down from 38 in 2022.

It is not known what will happen to the business following the administration or whether jobs are at risk. FRP Advisory and SFM Technology have not responded to a request for comment from Business Live.

The notice on the Gazette says the company’s address at Martock Trading Estate is in the the process of being changed to c/o FRP Advisory Trading Limited, 2nd Floor, Churchill House, 26-30 Upper Marlborough Road, St Albans, AL1 3UU.

Anyone wanting to get in touch with the business is being advised to contact the joint administrators on 01727 811111 or to email Oliver Mulvaney at cp.stalbans@frpadvisory.com.