Ming Foods, the Chinese pastry manufacturer at Upper Hockenden Farm in Swanley, has been placed in administration. It is one of seven companies named in July's insolvency notices for the Sevenoaks area.

Ming Foods Limited, the Chinese pastry manufacturer based at Upper Hockenden Farm in Swanley, has been placed in administration. Steven Wright of Dains was appointed administrator on 24 June 2026 under an order of the Business and Property Courts in Leeds, according to the notice published in The London Gazette on 2 July. (The Gazette, Appointment of Administrators, Ming Foods Limited, 2 July 2026)

Companies House now lists the company’s status as “In Administration”. The appointment was registered there on 6 July 2026, on the same day the registered office was moved from Swanley to 2 Chamberlain Square, Birmingham. (Companies House, Ming Foods Limited, company number 05067343)

Administration is not the same as closure. As the government’s guidance on insolvency puts it, the process “means you hand over your company to an insolvency practitioner”, whose job is to draw up proposals that may include restoring the company to viability, reaching an arrangement with creditors, or selling the business. (GOV.UK, Options when a company is insolvent)

The petition that came first

A second notice, published a day earlier, records that a creditor had already asked the court to wind the company up. Merchant Money SPV C Ltd, of Third Floor, 86 to 90 Paul Street, London, presented a petition to wind up Ming Foods Limited on 9 June 2026, claiming to be a creditor of the company. The petition was listed to be heard at the Business and Property Courts in Manchester on 21 July 2026. (The Gazette, Petitions to Wind Up (Companies), Ming Foods Limited, 1 July 2026)

The administrators were appointed on 24 June, between the petition being presented and the date it was listed to be heard.

Ming Foods was incorporated on 9 March 2004 and its registered activities are the manufacture of food products and of agricultural and forestry machinery. Its last accounts were made up to 31 August 2024 and filed in August 2025; a further set of accounts and a confirmation statement are now shown as overdue. (Companies House, Ming Foods Limited)

On its own website the business describes itself as a maker of crispy duck pancakes and a widening range of thin pastry products, and traces its history to a home kitchen in 1984, a restaurant with a pancake operation upstairs in 1988, and a UK manufacturing site at Erith before the move to Swanley. (Ming Foods, About us)

We have not seen any statement from the administrators about the site or its staff, and none has been published in The Gazette. This report sets out only what the public registers record.

Six more local companies in July’s notices

Ming Foods was not the only business with a local address in last month’s insolvency notices. Searching The Gazette, the UK’s official public record, for insolvency notices mentioning Sevenoaks, Swanley, Edenbridge, Westerham or Otford returns six other companies. The addresses below are given exactly as they appear in the notices.

Two aviation companies share a registered office at 510 Churchill Way, Biggin Hill, Westerham. JETMS Completions Ltd, incorporated in May 2008 and registered for the repair and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft, and Waypoint Aerotec Limited, incorporated in January 2013 and registered for non-scheduled passenger air transport, have both called virtual meetings of creditors for 5 August 2026, at 3.30pm and 11.30am respectively, as part of a creditors’ voluntary liquidation. (The Gazette, Meetings of Creditors, JETMS Completions Ltd, 28 July 2026; The Gazette, Meetings of Creditors, Waypoint Aerotec Limited, 28 July 2026) Both were still listed as active at Companies House when we checked on 4 August. (Companies House, JETMS Completions Ltd; Companies House, Waypoint Aerotec Limited)

Two more share an address at The Old Barn, off Wood Street, Swanley Village. Willow Court Services Limited, a management consultancy incorporated in 2019, was the subject of a winding-up order made on 29 June 2026 on a petition filed on 20 April, with the Official Receiver appointed liquidator. Companies House now lists it as in liquidation. (The Gazette, Winding-Up Orders, Willow Court Services Limited, 4 July 2026; Companies House, Willow Court Services Limited) Axminster Refurbishments Limited, a construction company incorporated in 2013, convened a virtual creditors’ meeting for 30 July 2026 to appoint a liquidator, with Ben Stanyon and Mark Boast of Opus Restructuring LLP nominated. (The Gazette, Meetings of Creditors, Axminster Refurbishments Limited, 24 July 2026)

Brith Services Limited, an electrical and plumbing contractor incorporated in 1993, gave its registered office in the notice as 2 Lakeview Stables, St Clere, Sevenoaks, with a principal trading address in Waltham Abbey. Members and creditors resolved on 29 June 2026 to wind the company up voluntarily and appointed Zain Iqbal of Cooper Young as liquidator. (The Gazette, Appointment of Liquidators, Brith Services Limited, 1 July 2026)

One name in the notices is misleading. Pro Construction Sevenoaks Ltd, trading as Barden Construction, went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 21 July 2026 with Molly Monks of Parker Walsh appointed liquidator, but its registered office and principal trading address are at Glendale Nurseries on Trench Road, Tonbridge, not in Sevenoaks. (The Gazette, Appointment of Liquidators, Pro Construction Sevenoaks Ltd, 24 July 2026)

July 2026 insolvency notices for the Sevenoaks area by route: five creditors' voluntary liquidations, one administration (Ming Foods) and one winding-up order (Willow Court Services)
The seven companies in July's notices, by the legal route each one took.

What the different notices actually mean

The notices use three different routes and they are not interchangeable.

A creditors’ voluntary liquidation starts with the company’s own members resolving to wind it up, then a meeting of creditors to appoint a liquidator. That is the route taken by the two Biggin Hill aviation companies, by Axminster Refurbishments, by Brith Services and by Pro Construction Sevenoaks.

A winding-up petition is brought by a creditor asking the court to wind the company up, and a winding-up order is the court granting it. Liquidation, the government’s guidance says, “legally ends or ‘winds up’ a limited company. It will stop doing business and employing people.” That is what happened to Willow Court Services. (GOV.UK, Options when a company is insolvent)

Administration, the Ming Foods route, is the one that can end in the business continuing under new ownership rather than being closed down.

What it means for you

If you are owed money by any of these companies, the notice itself names the insolvency practitioner and gives a contact address, and that is who you deal with. Creditors’ meetings are the point at which a liquidator is appointed and creditors get to vote, and the notices set out the deadline for delivering proofs of debt, usually 4pm on the business day before.

If you worked for one of them, you do not claim from the company. You claim redundancy pay, unpaid wages, holiday pay and notice pay from the Insolvency Service, using the case reference the insolvency practitioner gives you. (GOV.UK, Your rights if your employer is insolvent)

You can check any company yourself, free, and it is worth doing before you pay a deposit for building work or a large order. Companies House gives you a company’s status, registered office, incorporation date and full filing history in a few seconds. The Gazette’s insolvency notices are searchable by company name or by town, and are the official record: if a company is in trouble, the notice appears there first, often weeks before anything is reported anywhere else.

Our directory of local businesses in Swanley and the wider Sevenoaks business directory list trading businesses across the district. We update those listings from public sources, but a directory entry is not a check on a company’s financial position, so use Companies House for that.

Sources

Image: High Street, Swanley by Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.