A Northumberland family run construction company has collapsed despite owners’ attempts to keep it afloat it by ploughing more than £1m into the business.
A total of 86 jobs have been lost at Corbridge-based Joyce Construction and Civils Ltd after bad weather triggered cash flows issues, prompting directors to call in administrators from the Newcastle office of FRP advisory.
Antonya Allison, Gordon Smythe Goldie and Andrew Haslam of FRP Advisory were appointed joint administrators on December 3.
Administrator Mr Haslam said bad weather hindered the firm from carrying out drainage work on key contracts, sparking a chain events which led to delayed payments, falling behind with creditors and the bank not being in a position to put anymore money into the business, forcing the business to cease trading.
The firm has been involved in drainage projects on schemes including Testo’s roundabout but bad weather in autumn meant workers couldn’t carry out some of the works, which then led to delays in payments which could only be made when certain stages had been completed.
The directors and associated companies ploughed more than £1m of their own money into the business, Mr Haslam said.
He said: “They planned that they were going to have delayed payments because of bad weather – they have been in business a long time so knew that – but the poor weather came a lot earlier this autumn and has continued.
“The directors, via themselves and associated companies introduced a significant sum of money into the business, but it got to the stage where the directors and the bank were both in the position where they had reached the limited of the facility.
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“It has now ceased trading and 86 staff have been made redundant.”
It is understood many of the firm’s employees have found new jobs following the firm’s collapse. All staff were paid up until the end of November.
The company, which traded as JC&C, was run by Miles and Chris Joyce, after their father first launched the business in 1948.
The firm was historically a drainage business but it had added to its services over the years helping it to win projects with customers including Akzo Nobel in Ashington and the RVI redevelopment in Newcastle.
It made a move from to Tinklers Yard in Corbridge to a new headquarters at the former Dilston Sawmill site in 2012, which saw staffing levels more than double from 30 to 86.
Most recent accounts covering the year ended July 2018 showed the amounts falling due within a year – the liabilities it expected to pay in that period – had grown from £3.4m to £3.96m.
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Equally the amount it was owed by debtors within the same 12-month timeframe had jumped, from £2.67m to £3.5m.
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A statement of affairs will soon be published showing how much the firm owes to creditors, and how much it is also owed by debtors.
The firm worked for a number of contractors in the region on diverse, high profile developments, including the Nissan battery plant, the Building Schools for the Future programme in Newcastle and Gateshead and at Newcastle International Airport.
More recently the firm had been working at the multi-storey car park scheme for Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary and on the South Shields transport interchange.