Image: Astins
One of the UK’s largest drylining, ceiling and specialist fit-out contractors has gone into administration, with the loss of 140 jobs.
Astins, which is based in Crawley and worked with over 600 self-employed subcontractors, ceased to trade on 3 February.
It had been in business for 24 years and reported turnover of £51m for 2018, with a pre-tax profit of £1m.
Andrew Duncan, director at administrator Leonard Curtis, said the company had suffered from “substantial” bad debts and had also received claims from clients in respect of historic contracts, which meant it could no longer trade.
Duncan added: “Our focus is now on ensuring that the company’s employees receive their claim entitlements from the Redundancy Payments Service as soon as possible and making sure that any value held in the Company’s current contracts and other assets is preserved for the benefit of creditors.”
Meanwhile Astins managing director Dominic Tutt has been liaising with former employees and industry contacts on LinkedIn to try to find roles for those made redundant.
He said: “I’m aware that the PMs, QSs and estimators are in demand which is great (and thoroughly deserved). Slight concern over support roles, admin and access to Astins graduates. We will be in touch with each and every one of you in [the] next day.”
Comments are closed.