 PKF appointed joint interim managers of Harte Construction Group
11 January 2012: Following a petition by the company directors Anne Buchanan and Bryan Jackson of Accountants and business advisers PKF have today been appointed joint interim managers of W J Harte Construction Ltd and RJT Pennant Limited. The companies, which are the main parts of the Harte Construction Group, undertook civil engineering and groundworks projects across Scotland. A separate company, RJT Excavations Limited, is not a part of this process. Harte Construction is a Bothwell-based group employing 722 people at its headquarters and on sites across Scotland.
The Harte Group has been in operation since 1974 and offered a broad range of construction services including excavations, surfacing, lighting, civil engineering, and plant hire across its various divisions to provide clients with a one stop shop solution. Turnover peaked in 2007/08 at £102m but this fell back to £40m over the last two financial years. The decline in the construction market conditions coupled with bad debts caused by other construction firms failing has resulted in the company experiencing severe cash flow problems.
Anne Buchanan, joint interim manager of the Harte Group and corporate recovery partner with PKF, explained: “Harte Group is a long established, highly regarded firm servicing the construction industry. The firm has experienced a severe reduction in turnover over the last few years as well as considerable levels of bad debt from creditors who themselves have gone bust. Despite shedding jobs over the last few years to cope with this decline in turnover the firm is now unable to continue trading.”
“The downturn in the construction sector means that the business is no longer able to operate and, unfortunately as a consequence, around 500 of the employees within the Harte Group are being made redundant. To put this in context the latest Scottish corporate insolvency statistics showed that 138 businesses in the construction sector went under in the first three quarters of 2011 compared with 158 for the whole of 2010 and just 72 in 2009. The increase in corporate failures related to construction businesses is increasing which indicates continuing problems for the sector.”
Buchanan concluded: “It is unfortunate that this company, which has been around for so long and traded profitably for much of that time, should be closed down due to a number of factors. The long term effect of the closure of a business like this may have a serious impact on the recovery of the construction sector in the future.”
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For further information, please contact: Andy Konieczko, 020 7065 0537, andrew.konieczko@uk.pkf.com
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Notes to Editors:
1. PKF (UK) LLP is a leading firm of accountants and business advisers with more than 1,500 partners and staff operating in 23 offices in the UK mainland firm, incorporating a wholly-owned financial planning company and associated offshore practices. The firm specialises in advising growing and entrepreneurial/owner-managed businesses, AIM and fully listed companies, and also has extensive experience in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Principal services include assurance and advisory; taxation; consultancy; corporate recovery and insolvency; corporate finance and forensic. The firm has particular expertise in advising sectors such as hotels and leisure; mining and resource; public sector; real estate and construction; professional practices; not-for-profit; and medical. The firm’s web site is www.pkf.co.uk
2. PKF (UK) LLP also offers financial services through its FSA authorised company, PKF Financial Planning Limited. PKF (Isle of Man) LLC is a limited liability company registered in the Isle of Man. PKF (Channel Islands) Limited is incorporated in Guernsey.
3. PKF (UK) LLP is a member firm of the PKF International Limited (PKFI) network of legally independent member firms. The PKFI member firms have around 2,200 partners and more than 21,000 staff in around 125 countries.
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