Vivitar?s offices have closed with the loss of 26 staff ? including 14 in the UK ? as the firm, known as Vivitar SA France, ceases trading.<\/p>\n
The firm has gone into administration owing more than \u00a34m to creditors.<\/p>\n
The news spells the loss of 14 jobs in Leicester and 12 in Paris, where the company was based.<\/p>\n
Vivitar branded products were made in the Far East for the European market. UK clients included Argos.<\/p>\n
However, the move may not mean the end of the Vivitar brand name, which has been sold to US consumer electronics firm Sakar International.<\/p>\n
It is understood that Sakar will continue to market Vivitar cameras and related accessories.<\/p>\n
Vivitar was set up in 1938 and had a turnover of \u00a323m. It was sold to US firm Syntax Brillian in 2006.<\/p>\n
But Syntax Brillian ran into financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the US.<\/p>\n
?Unfortunately, the failure of the company?s American parent has meant that the viability of Vivitar is no longer sustainable,? said Eddie Kerr, a joint administrator at Leicester-based corporate recovery firm PKF.<\/p>\n
Administrators say they will attempt to minimise Vivitar?s ?significant losses to the creditors both at home and abroad?.<\/p>\n
Though known in recent years for making compact cameras Vivitar also manufactured 35mm film-based SLRs such as the 420\/SL in 1975, as well as rangefinder models such as the 35EE in 1978.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vivitar\u2019s offices have closed with the loss of 26 staff \u2013 including 14 in the UK \u2013 as the firm, known as Vivitar SA France, ceases trading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-25208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photo-news"],"yoast_head":"\n