THE Hunter Rubber Company, maker of the upmarket wellies favoured by Royals and the country set, has called in the administrators, despite soaring sales.

The brand that spawned the nickname the “green welly brigade” has seen sales rise by nearly 50 per cent over the past few years as shareholders pumped £1.7 million into the business between September 2003 and February 2005, hoping to tap into the trend for designer wellies.

Yet while Cat Deeley, Donna Air and Kate Moss sported Hunters wellies at the Glastonbury music festival and Angelina Jolie wore a pair of red Hunters, a white shirt and not much else in Mr and Mrs Smith, the Hollywood film, Hunter’s profits have remained under water.

Richard Fleming, of KPMG, who was appointed joint administrator yesterday, said that Hunter had been making a loss for some time because of high manufacturing costs and difficulties in adapting to its new markets.

The firm, which has one factory in Dumfries, employs just over 100 staff and makes up to 200,000 pairs of wellies a year.

Mr Fleming said that the Hunter brand, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last year, was valuable and three or four interested parties had come forward already about a possible purchase.

“We will be trading the business on and are hopeful of finding a buyer,” he said.

Hunter’s sales have increased from about £5.5 million to £8 million over the past few years as the firm has expanded in America and launched into a variety of new product areas, including pink, blue and red wellies, with money from each boot sold going to a designated charity.

However, in the period from September 2003 to February 28 2005, the period last filed at Companies House, Hunter made a loss of £593,490. At that end of that period it had net debt of £2.03 million. Mr Fleming said that it was too early to reveal the level of debt at present.

The collapse into administration of The Hunter Rubber Company puts at risk a long history of welly-making in Scotland. The Hunter boot was origi- nally designed for walking over Scotland’s rugged terrain. Originally theboot of the landed gentry, Hunters can cost hundreds of pounds for handmade versions.

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