On November 9, 2018, that dream will officially be over.

That’s the day when the Endeavour Industries laundry at South Cessnock, its property care and maintenance division and box packing facility at Weston close their doors after the company went into voluntary administration earlier this year.

131 staff will be affected, leaving many facing an uncertain future, and fearful of not receiving entitlements as administrators wrap up the company. The closures will also affect approximately 452 clients.

Further, 13 residents living in the Endeavour Villas in Regent and King streets, Cessnock, some of them the children of the original Endeavour board, are anxiously awaiting the fate of their homes as the property goes under the hammer.

“There are a lot of shattered supported employees. They are uncertain of where to go, or what to do,” an Endeavour employee, who did not wish to be named, told Fairfax Media.

“We’ve all tried really hard to make it work, but it just hasn’t and it’s because of bad management,” the employee said.

“I have nothing against anyone at Endeavour – they have all tried really hard and Tabatha [Kattau acting CEO] is one of the nicest ladies you will ever meet.”

Former CEO Peter Ryder, who served in the position from 1996 to 2011, agreed.

“It’s very disappointing and in some ways I’m quite angry,” he said.

“There were some very poor management decisions made which shouldn’t have been allowed to happen so I guess the board has to accept some responsibility for that.”

Mr Ryder said the decision to move head office to Maitland in 2013, was one example of poor decision making.

“In order to comply with the NDIS requirements, they had to have representation in Maitland so the decision was made to move Endeavour Industries, and they paid a fortune to rent an office and I don’t believe that was necessary,” he said.

“All they really needed, in my understanding was an office and a representation.”

Mr Ryder also claimed that he saw the writing on the wall for the company two years ago after returning to the company briefly in an advisory role.

“I got sick of beating my head up against a wall. They didn’t have the systems I was used to, they didn’t have the financial controls I was used to,” he said.

“At the annual general meeting I said to them you’ve disregarded the company’s ability to pay and if you don’t change a whole heap of things, in two years’ time the company will be broke – and that was two years ago.”

Endeavour Industries, now known as EGA, expanded to offer a raft of services including NDIS and employment support under its Disability Support unit to people with a disability throughout the Hunter region.

Administrators Rapsey Griffiths Insolvency and Advisory (RGIA) are now in advanced stages of negotiation with another disability support provider to take over the company’s Disability Services unit and are hopeful of finalising the transaction by the end of the month.

While no binding offers had been received for the laundry, Weston packaging and the property care and maintenance division, Fairfax Media can confirm that Rapsey Griffiths are, as of Friday, in the first stages of negotiation with a local Cessnock businessman who is interested in taking over control of the laundry.

Administrators have also offered a range of transitional support to affected staff, including a supported employment forum/expo held on Tuesday on site at Cessnock Laundry, job ready workshops, and parent and carer forums.

Mr Griffiths said that the 131 affected staff have been advised that all employee entitlements would be paid within two to four months.

‘Contingent on the sale of EGA’s assets – we are committed to making every effort to pay the staff their entitlements before Christmas," he said.

The Endeavour Villas were passed in at auction last Thursday after they failed to meet an undisclosed reserve.

“The administrators are in the process of determining a way forward,” RGIA director Mitchell Griffiths said. “We are unable to comment on how a sale would affect the residents as this would be in the hands of the purchaser.”

While residents’ group spokesperson said they were relatively confident that they would not be “put out onto the street”, the uncertainty was still weighing on all of their minds.

“We’ve had regular contact from the administrators and it’s to be sold as it is – it can’t be sold individually as it’s purpose-built for residents with a disability,” the spokesperson said. “They’ve been as good as they possibly can be and there’s been a lot of pressure on the acting CEO. It just shouldn’t happen. We have been very distressed over this.”

EGA directed all Fairfax Media’s enquiries to Rapsey Griffiths.

READ MORE: Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon’s thoughts on the issue