The Midlands demolition firm is now in the hands of accountants at Harper Cavendish who were sent in by company pension fund trustee Legal & General.

The administrators are currently reviewing the firm’s contracts in progress with a view to completing them in a bid to raise cash for creditors.

Widespread job losses are expected among Armoury’s 90 staff and the administrator was unable to confirm how many employees have been kept on to complete the contracts.

Latest Companies House accounts show the the firm had a turnover of £8.8m for the year to June 2009 – down from £11.4m in 2008.

Armoury made a pre-tax loss of £75,000 in 2009 compared to a £830,00 profit the previous year.

Harper Cavendish said it had “not ruled out the possibility of salvaging the ‘goodwill’ of the core business built up over 22 years.”

The demolition sector has become increasingly competitive in the downturn.

Industry expert Mark Anthony of DemolitionNews.com said: “Armoury was one of the UK’s most-respected demolition contractors, and the fact that it has failed should serve as a warning to the wider demolition industry.

“Demolition workload is down and some of the work that is being let is going at suicidal prices that will undermine the stability of the company winning the work and impact upon the industry as a whole.

“I am afraid to say that Armoury is unlikely to be the last major contractor to fall to the current economic recession.”

The fall of Armoury comes as the number of  construction and property companies calling in the administrators dropped dramatically last year.

Research by Deloitte revealed that 453 companies became insolvent in 2010 – a drop of 34% from 2009 when 683 companies in the sector went into administration

Lee Manning, reorganisation services partner at Deloitte said: “Risk of insolvency plays a big part in the property and construction industry because of its heavy reliance on supply chain relationships.

“Whilst many of the smaller property and construction firms would have been affected in 2008 during the early stages of the downturn, the sector still remains the largest to be hit by the market slow down, accounting for one in five administrations in 2010.”