Forvis Mazars has been appointed as Joint Administrator of Cheltenham-based Seventynine Lighting Ltd which has been in business since 2006.

The company has worked on a string of retail and commercial fit-outs as a lighting design and installation subcontractor.

Following the insolvency of ISG in September 2024 Seventynine found itself with £2m in bad debt and its largest customer no longer trading.

The issues were insurmountable for the company and the directors concluded that an orderly wind down of the business should be pursued under the protection of an administration moratorium.

The business has ceased to trade and 30 staff have been made redundant.

Mark Boughey, Joint Administrator, said: “Although Seventynine Lighting has historically been a profitable and successful business, its sudden insolvency is unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence in the construction industry. A major contractor going into administration materially impacts the supply chain of other subcontractors involved in its projects.

“Whilst some of the inherent financial risks of the construction sector cannot be fully removed, it can help if subcontractors take a few steps to protect themselves where possible.

“These can include diversifying their customer base, monitoring the credit ratings of key suppliers and using risk-based products such as credit insurance.

“These tools can sometimes help businesses to manage and reduce their financial exposure where there are warning signs of an insolvency in their customer base or supply chain and, in the event of a failure, potentially recover some of their losses.”