Mon, 17 May 2021 | ADMINISTRATION
Leicestershire construction firm Paul John Construction has appointed administrators after COVID-19 derailed its turnaround plan. The firm, a specialist in groundworks, was founded 45 years ago and provided civil engineering and building services for residential and commercial projects.
The company said last year that the pandemic had hit its revenue, operating profit and liquidity. Despite saying at the time that it expected the impact to be temporary, it has now hired Gary Hargreaves and David Acland from FRP Advisory to handle the running of the firm while it is wound down.
A spokesperson for FRP Advisory said: “The company, which specialised in groundworks for the construction sector, has experienced significant financial challenges which left the business unable to meet its financial obligations.”
“The joint administrators are proceeding with an orderly wind down of the business and are working with a specialist quantity surveying practice to extract value from the significant debtor ledger, whilst supporting affected employees in making their claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”
The company saw several sites shut as a result of the pandemic and was forced to furlough some staff members, cut pay for site workers and negotiate payment holidays with companies from which it had leased equipment.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, the company had been in the midst of a restructuring. In 2018, the company made a post-tax loss of £1.5 million on close to £51 million turnover. Revenue declined to £41.7 million in 2019, but the company cut its post-tax losses to £174,799.
At the time of its last financial reports, the company reported £3.6 million in fixed assets and £6.3 million in current assets. Minus amounts owed to creditors, the firm’s total equity at the time was £933,720.
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