The £10m turnover firm was started by Tommy Gallagher 14 years ago and handed to his son Sean to run more recently.

Its main clients include Barr, Cruden, Morgan Sindall and Seddon, some it has worked with for more than 10 years building a variety of Sainsbury’s and Tesco supermarket projects and housing jobs.

KLM was due to start a foundations job for Barr on a Tesco project in Paisley in the New Year and is also on a leisure centre job for the contractor at Witham in Essex.

The firm owns all it plant machinery ranging from micro diggers up to 24t excavators and boasted over 100 carded operatives.

Liverpool corporate recovery specialist Leonard Curtis is handling the administration.