Published by Construction Enquirer
WILDGOOSE WENT DOWN OWING £9M TO TRADE FIRMS
Derbyshire building contractor Wildgoose Construction collapsed owing over £9m to subcontractors and suppliers.
The family-owned business blamed labour shortages and big materials price hikes on fixed-price jobs for its demise last November.
More than 700 firms have been left out of pocket by the £50m turnover business, which is based out of Alfreton.
Staff at the business were owed over £560,000 in unpaid wages.
After payment of preferred creditors, accountants predict before their own charges around £500,000 will be available for creditors to share.
Howard Smith, joint administrator at Interpath Advisory, said: “These are extremely difficult times for companies across the construction sector, with recent surges in the price of raw materials, coupled with supply chain disruption, acute labour shortages and wage inflation putting businesses under significant pressure.
“Unfortunately for Wildgoose Construction, these issues ultimately resulted in several of its fixed-cost contracts becoming unsustainably loss-making, and when combined with the other unexpected significant one-off costs and liabilities which had arisen, the directors had no alternatives other than to place the company into administration.”