Nearly 70 jobs to go at sandalwood producer Quintis as FTI moves to break collapsed business up for sale

Receivers of collapsed sandalwood company Quintis have been forced to slash nearly 70 jobs after a sale process found only tepid interest. The Perth-based business sunk in April and nine entities were put in the hands of FTI Consulting. That was the second failure of a business said to be the world’s biggest producer of the timber, after a collapse and revival backed by BlackRock about six years ago. But the group will now be likely broken apart after receivers were unable to find a buyer for the full company. Quintis has “continued to operate at a loss” and key operations will be placed in care and maintenance, FTI said in a statement released to media on Tuesday. There will be nearly 70 redundancies, with about half in Albany and a further 19 in business units at the head office. The Kununurra primary processing centre will lose 17 staff. All up, that will be more than 60 per cent of the company’s work force. “This was an incredibly difficult decision and we are very aware of the impact this has on staff,” FTI Consulting senior managing director Daniel Woodhouse said. “However, due to Quintis’s financial position, continued operating losses and an asset-focused forward sales process, the only real option – having explored many – was to place operations onto care and maintenance and make numerous roles redundant”. A sale process for Quintis had secured two offers last week but both bids failed to meet FTI’s thresholds. Receivers will now move to sell parts of the business, including real estate and plantations.