Kilwuddie falls victim to construction downturn

KILWUDDIE Construction has gone into administration and made all its 125 employees redundant, blaming the recession.

The firm has appointed accountants and business advisers PKF as the administrator.

The privately-owned company, with its head office in Nerston, East Kilbride, was involved in civil engineering and groundworks. It was established in 1994 and operated across the central belt.

Bryan Jackson, corporate recovery partner at PKF, said that Kilwuddie had been a successful company over a considerable period but had recently been hit by a number of factors relating to the recession. He added that the economic downturn has had an enormous impact on the construction sector as a whole.

He said: "The firm has considerable sums outstanding but has been unable to make several debtors pay despite winning adjudications and settlements. In addition, margins have been squeezed considerably over the last year to 18 months."

These pressures had led to the number of employees being cut from 300 to 125 over the past 12 months. Jackson said it has had to make the remaining employees redundant.

While the company has insufficient funds to immediately complete all contracts, Jackson said efforts will be made to preserve the value of the outstanding work.

He added: "Unfortunately the plight of Kilwuddie Construction is all too familiar at the moment as the repercussions of this unprecedented slowdown in the construction market continue to be felt at all levels in the sector.

"Over the last few months I have had meetings with numerous companies involved in construction and they are all struggling to continue to operate in these extremely difficult times for the industry."