Steven Muncaster and Sarah Bell of Duff & Phelps Ltd were appointed joint administrators of Construction Partnership UK (CPUK) on 24th April 2020.
Due to the current and ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the business temporarily ceased to trade, and all staff were placed on furlough leave by the company before the administration. The employees will remain on furlough leave and the joint administrators are now looking at a sale of the business and assets of the company as a going concern in the first instance.
Skelmersdale-based CPUK is a privately-owned contractor with more than 20 years of delivering building services across both the private and public sectors. Joint shareholders are founder/managing director Steve Burke and finance directorStuart Whittle.
The company mainly operates across the north of England and the midlands undertaking new build and refurbishment contracts carried out under traditional and design & build arrangements across most building sectors up to £25m value.
Turnover for the year to March 2020 was approximately £55m but profitability has been patchy in recent years due to project delays, including planning issues, client funding delays and finding medieval remains giving rise to an archaeological dig being required on a student accommodation development.
Then there has been the general trading environment and more recent events.
Steven Muncaster, of Duff & Phelps said: “CPUK has come under increasing pressure over the past 12 months due to a combination of factors including an increasingly competitive market and raw material price increases. The company exhausted all options in terms of finding a solution to the current financial issues, caused by a combination of problem contracts and bad debts. The combined effect of these, coupled with the uncertain outlook for the construction industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has caused a drain on the company’s cash reserves and it had no other option but to appoint administrators.”
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