500 jobs axed as Harte enters administration

Aaron Morby 13 years ago
Share

W J Harte and sister firm RJT Pennant have been placed in administration with the loss of 500 jobs.

Adminsistrator PKF has retained around 200 workers to finish civil engineering contracts in progress.

A separate earthmoving company, RJT Excavations Limited, with bases in Jedburgh and Northampton is not being placed in administration.

Many workers are understood to be furious about lack of information over the Christmas shutdown with some claiming not to have been paid.

In its heyday, Harte was ranked among the top 25 civil engineering companies in the UK.

Before the banking crisis, turnover at the South Lanarkshire civil engineering group  peaked at £102m but it fell to around £40m during the downturn.

The firm was stricken by a combination of falling orders and mounting bad debt caused by the failure of other construction companies.

Anne Buchanan, corporate recovery partner with PKF, said: “Harte Group is a long-established, highly-regarded firm servicing the construction industry.

“The firm has experienced a severe reduction in turnover as well as considerable levels of bad debt from creditors who themselves have gone bust.

“Despite shedding jobs over the last few years to cope with this decline in turnover the firm is now unable to continue trading.”

“The downturn in the construction sector means that the business is no longer able to operate and, unfortunately as a consequence, around 500 of the employees within the Harte Group are being made redundant.

She added: “To put this in context the latest Scottish corporate insolvency statistics showed that 138 businesses in the construction sector went under in the first three quarters of 2011 compared with 158 for the whole of 2010 and just 72 in 2009.

“The increase in corporate failures related to construction businesses is increasing which indicates continuing problems for the sector.”

Latest news

Liverpool unveils £850m highways framework line-up

Graham, Sisk and Wright land spots on city road improvement deal
29 minutes ago

Council terminates Spencer bridge repair contract

Delays have hit restoration of Grimsby’s historic Corporation Road Bridge
6 hours ago

Westminster gears up for £500m housing repairs deal

Council eyes multiple strategic alliances for major housing overhaul
12 hours ago

Henry Boot sets October start on £1bn cyber hub next to GCHQ

160,000 sq ft IDEA office building starts 10-year build plan
13 hours ago

Cementation Skanska names new operations director

Emma Haddow now heads up UK-wide ground engineering services
13 hours ago

Forterra fires-up kilns as house building demand returns

Materials giant boosts production of bricks and concrete floor beams
13 hours ago

Plans in for £100m Church Wharf regeneration in Bolton

Developer Watson submits plan for over 400 homes and 130-bed hotel
12 hours ago

McAvoy on the hunt for new subcontractors

Meet the Buyer event in Manchester next month: Register now
13 hours ago

Ex-Lendlease boss seals £24bn Crown Estate mega sites JV

Crown Estate/Lendlease alliance to build out at Euston, Silvertown and Thamesmead sites
1 day ago

Brookfield gets green light for latest City office scheme

Retrofit-first approach will retain 70% of the original structure at 1 Moor Lane
1 day ago

Knauf commits £170m to build Deeside insulation plant

Work to start next year at former Shotton steelworks site
1 day ago

Construction trade bodies vote to keep training levy

CITB gets green light to collect contractor's cash for another three years
1 day ago

McLaren to build 2,400-bed worker campus at Sizewell C

Worker camp to raise the bar on site accommodation standards
2 days ago

Soaring costs and work drought sunk historic scaffolding firm

Rodells had been in business since 1898
2 days ago

Clarion set to tender £79m Kirkstall Road Phase 2

Bidding to start for Dyecoats blocks 1 and 3 after Graham bagged phase 1
2 days ago

TfL seeks firms for £700m civils and station framework

Works include £80m South Kensington and £60m Elephant & Castle station upgrades
2 days ago

Early market talks on £2.5bn Yorkshire mass transit plan

Supplier talks open for West Yorkshire’s biggest ever transport scheme
2 days ago

Robertson starts Redcar town centre revamp

Culture and Leisure Anchor Attraction will enhance Redcar’s Esplanade
2 days ago

Alun Griffiths set to rescue firm he sold for £36m

Tarmac to hand back Welsh civils contractor after five years of losses
5 days ago

Landsec to pump £2bn into new house building drive

Developer to build 6,000 homes as it sells offices to fund new schemes
5 days ago

Severfield to start steel on McAlpine car battery site

Specialist to start on £4bn site next month after steel package signed-off
5 days ago

Construction Manager of the Year crowned

Jason Hunt of Willmott Dixon wins for work on Bristol concert hall
5 days ago

Tide gets go-ahead for over 1,000-home London scheme

Volumetric expert gains planning for co-living homes scheme in Southwark
5 days ago

Vital Energi lands £250m Gatwick decarbonisation deal

Five-year programme to switch airport away from gas heating
5 days ago

Construction output flickers into life in March

First quarter activity flatlines after slow start to year
6 days ago

Skanska lifts margin to 4.3% as profit hits £78m

Infrastructure and FM drive near-tripling of profits
6 days ago

Mayor backs 46-storey student tower at Canary Wharf

City Hall overturns Tower Hamlets council rejection of 912-bed scheme
6 days ago

Plans go in for 100 acre Port of Tilbury expansion

Construction could start next year on site the size of 70 football pitches
6 days ago

Inland Homes creditors face £38m hit

Administrator confirms no cash for supply chain
6 days ago

Durkan dogged by legacy jobs despite return to trading profit

Durkan scales down new homes contracting to focus on retrofit work
6 days ago

Contractor services