After suffering increasing losses, Teesside fabrication firm Hertel Project Services (HPS) has been placed into administration. Over 100 jobs have been left hanging in the balance after the business succumbed to the affects of the recession. HPS also blamed a lack of new orders. Engineering giant Hertel bought the business from Aker Kvaerner Engineering Services in 2006 and injected several million pounds into it. Joint administrators David Broadbent and David Thornhill of Vantis Business Recovery Services explained that it had proved difficult to attract the level of work needed to keep the site afloat. The business had "been making losses for some time," Mr Thornhill commented. "Its parent company has taken the decision that it can no longer afford to support the company." The company is currently working to finish current orders, having gained the administrators' permission to do so. David Fitzsimons, director of HPS said: "Unfortunately, the business has not been the success we'd hoped it would be." The engineering company is part of Hertel UK, and has customers in the nuclear, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.
