More than 100 jobs have been lost at a North East construction specialist after it fell into financial difficulties.
Founded in 1967, building contractor PF Burridge & Sons had built up a strong customer base and employed 112 staff across Newcastle and Wakefield bases.
In the last three years the firm,founded in 1967 by Peter Burridge, had gone through an MBO with Phil Burridge buying out his two brothers David and Mark Burridge when they retired, and the firm was named in The Journal’s Fastest 50 in 2017.
Now, however, it has emerged that falling market demand has triggered the firm’s collapse, leading to 105 redundancies.
James Lumb and Howard Smith from KPMG were appointed joint administrators to PF Burridge and Sons Ltd on Monday, March 16.
The joint administrators were appointed after the business, which has its headquarters near Holystone, Newcastle, was unable to meet its financial obligations as a result of falling market demand.
The administrators said they continue to be assisted by a team of seven employees in reviewing and exploring options for the business and its assets.
The business had particular expertise in the social housing, education, small business, public sector, and residential and commercial property markets and had worked on refurbishing and upgrading a wide range of well known projects across the North East, including Newcastle University’s Armstrong Building, Newcastle hospitals, Northumbria Water’s Scientific Laboratories, Nexus House, and the Sir Charles Parsons swimming pool in Walker.
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The most recent published accounts for the firm, covering the year ended July 2018, showed that turnover had dropped from £16.7m to £15.5m but that gross profit had remained consistent, despite losing a repairs and maintenance contract with North Star Housing.
James Lumb, restructuring director at KPMG, said: “Following a period of sustained financial difficulty, the business was unable to manage a reduction in trading over the last 12 months despite support from customers and staff.
“In addition to reviewing the business’ assets, our current focus is to work with the Redundancy Payments Service to support all affected employees during this difficult and, more widely, unprecedented period.”