A Nottinghamshire-based contractor with a turnover of more than £100m has entered administration.
The “majority” of J Tomlinson’s 400 staff will be made redundant, according to recently appointed administrators Raj Mittal and Nathan Jones of FRP Advisory, with some staying on to help with administration.
The company was founded in Beeston in the 1950s as a mechanical and engineering contractor, but expanded to become a major contractor in the Midlands, with two offices in Nottingham, as well as offices in Ashfield, Wigan, Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster, Wakefield and the West Midlands.
In a statement issued on Monday afternoon (July 10), FRP said the business had “suffered from prevailing headwinds in the construction sector, including strong inflationary pressure on costs”.
Mittal added: “Despite its scale and the success achieved in several of its divisions, the severe impact of Covid and recent inflationary pressures meant that J Tomlinson was not in a financial position to continue trading and therefore we had to make the difficult decision to cease operations.
“We are now assessing options on next steps and have begun our engagement with customers and creditors in relation to ongoing projects and liabilities. We are supporting affected staff to make applications to the Redundancy Payments Service.”
In a statement signed “yours devastated”, the company’s chief executive, Mark Davis, said inflation in long-term contracts that were priced before the Covid pandemic had “harmed the group’s cash flow “.
“As a board we have worked tirelessly to attract additional global funding to the group to invest in the future,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have to announce today that we have not been successful in this regard.”
Davis paid tribute to long-serving colleagues, saying: “We had hoped to end their journey with a bright future for the next generation, unfortunately we have run out of time… We have employees with 30 years of invested time and customers with a duration of 15-20 years, which is incredible and tragic.
“We have done our best to communicate in a timely manner and support our teams, which is very difficult when decisions of this magnitude are made and implemented on the tightest of deadlines.
“We will do our best to provide support and guidance during the difficult period ahead.”
J Tomlinson was a finalist in the Construction News Contractor of the Year award for 2020, in the category of businesses with a turnover of less than £500.
In its most recent accounts, for the year to the end of September 2021, the company had a turnover of £106m, with a pre-tax loss of £657,000. It employed an average of 460 people.
The accounts say that, in addition to the impact of Covid, the company had made “adequate provisions” for a loss-making new build contract and for reduced expected profits on some long-term residential contracts of new construction.
According to its website, the company offered services “covering the entire building life cycle,” including new construction, facilities management, renovation and property maintenance. He worked in sectors such as social housing, education, health and social care and residential.
