A RYEDALE manufacturer has repaid the £130,000 furlough funds it has used during the Covid pandemic.

Ellis Patents,which is based in Rillington, decided in a board meeting to pay back the full amount it has claimed since Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in March 2020.

The cable cleat manufacturer, whose products are used around the world, took advantage of the scheme between March and September 2020 in a bid to protect its workforce from the consequences of fluctuating demand caused by the pandemic.

Richard Shaw, chairman of Ellis Patents, said: "We followed Government guidance and did not close.

"We used the furlough scheme as intended, to protect our workforce through the leanest period.At the peak we furloughed 44 per cent of our employees.”

Ellis Patents, has come through 2020 in better shape than could have been conceived in March, but there have been sacrifices all round. There was no annual pay review for employees at the engineering company, no returns have been delivered to shareholders and cash has been conserved by reducing capital expenditure.

“In December we looked at the improving picture and paid a one off Covid bonus to our employees with a promise of a pay review in March,” added Richard.

“While we also knew that we should consider our shareholders, whose continued support has been unstinting, we noted the impact of the furlough scheme in artificially inflating our bottom line.

"It was the unanimous decision of the Board that the company had a social obligation to return this money to the Government before paying any dividend.”

The decision to repay the furlough funds follows a series of significant orders from Latin America during 2020.