Their Sunderland-based firm Brims Construction will take on around £20m of Tolent’s pipeline of commercial projects, including a rolling programme of petro-chem maintenance works.

Tolent’s previous Teesside management team will be re-employed by Brims, along with staff, operatives and members of the supply chain.

Already some sites have returned to work after deals with clients. Talks are also underway with administrators to buy the Teesside office.

Brothers Jason and Richard Wood along with co-director Ian Cliff started their careers at Tolent but left 16 years ago to set up their own business.

They took on the Brims name for their start-up, a name that had been bought by their father John Wood way back in the 1960s when that business fell into administration.

Together the three directors have built Brims up to a £38m turnover contractor employing around 90 staff.

Richard said that Brims had been looking to expand further south and open an office in Teesside but had not envisaged it happening this way.

“Following the announcement on the 13th February that Tolent had gone into administration with the loss of 350 jobs, we took action immediately as it is a company very close to our hearts,” he said.

“My father set Tolent up, but Ian, Jason and I all trained and worked there, with John only retiring three years ago as chairman.”

He added: “Its unfortunate demise has provided an opportunity for the future expansion of Brims and at the same time, we are hopeful of providing secure employment for up to 150 employees moving forward.

“The former Tolent sites will be re-badged as Brims Construction and our sole aim is to save jobs with the minimum of disruption to clients.

“We have spent the last few days talking to clients and reassuring them that their projects will proceed as normal, with the people they have previously been dealing with.  We are confident we can minimise any job losses by quickly stepping in this way.”

Brims said it would not be taking on responsibility for reimbursing any of Tolent’s creditors.

John Wood, who has been working behind the scenes with his sons on the rescue plan, said:  “It gives me great pleasure to be able to offer my help with these proposals, especially with Brims being central to it. 

“It keeps the construction heritage alive under the Brims name and it will hopefully salvage some of the work that Tolent was previously involved with. 

“We are confident that we will save as many site and supply chain jobs as we can and I would encourage all existing management and site staff to feel encouraged at what we are doing.  

“It is great news for the region.  We just want to save the jobs and get work back on track.”

Tolent was founded in 1983 by John Wood.  By the time he retired in 2019, turnover was around £180m with a strong balance sheet and the firm was viewed as one of the region’s success stories.