Managing director Kevin Stanyon has called it a day as public sector work in the firm’s specialist schools and hospitals fields dries-up and red tape strangles the business.

He told the Burton Mail: “If you add up the profits and losses from 1991 to 2009, you don’t come up with a positive number.

“We had work over last summer but from then it almost disappeared.

“It’s disappointing all round, but the finances are such that we cannot keep going.

“Compared to 20 years ago there’s a hell of a lot more red tape and no allowance any more for common sense. I’m not a great paperwork person and don’t find it enjoyable anymore.”

Stanyon said his firm had not gone bust and would eventually be able to pay its suppliers, despite current difficulties.

He is hoping to sell the business’s three-acre headquarters to a housing association or developer.

In August 2009, the company had sought planning permission from East Staffordshire Borough Council to build houses on the site.

Stanyon said: “If we had got planning permission 12 months ago and been able to sell the land, we could have taken the decision to relocate.”

Suppliers would have to be patient and wait until a deal was done before they got their money, he said.