Squibb Group has filed for administration after 75 years of trading.
The family-owned demolition specialist, which employs 180 staff and is based in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, submitted the application last Friday just before the end of business.
The application creates a moratorium during which no legal action can be taken by creditors or other parties against the company without court authorization.
The company had received a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which was due to be resolved this morning (November 22).
However, a High Court judge adjourned the winding-up hearing until December 6, after the administration’s application was heard at London’s Companies and Insolvency Court on December 4
Under bankruptcy law, companies with a winding-up application pending against them must file a court application if they want to go into administration.
Construction news It is understood the application was made after plans for a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) – under which creditors could have agreed a long-term payment plan – failed.
Squibb reported a pre-tax profit of £274,000 on revenue of £32m in its latest published accounts, for the year ending 31 January 2022. At the time, the company owed 26, £2m to creditors but was owed £18.7m by debtors and had other assets. worth £18.1 million, including £35,423 in cash.
The company has extended its 2022/23 financial year by six months and was only due to present its next financial accounts on 30 April 2024.
The company is led by managing director Leslie Squibb, the great-grandson of company founder Harry Squibb, who joined the company in 1987. His father, Leslie Snr, was the company’s chairman until his death in 2020.
In March, the company was one of 10 companies fined by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for breaching competition law through covert bidding arrangements.
Squibb was fined £2m but launched legal action against the CMA in August last year, pointing out that it was only involved in “a small number of offences” and saying that the calculation of the sum of the fine was incorrect.
CN Squibb was approached for comment.
