Facade specialist which emerged out of Lakesmere collapse goes into administration

Façade specialist Kaicer is believed to have gone into administration after rescue efforts to save the business foundered last week.

The firm was set up in 2017 by founder and chairman Mark Davey after Lakesmere, the £118m turnover firm he established in 1993, collapsed that year.

Among its first jobs were for work on the Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Tottenham Court Road and Canary Wharf Crossrail stations when it traded as Kace Holdings.

Kace Holdings, which was set up at the start of 2016 more than 18 months before Lakesmere collapsed, later worked as Kaicer Building Envelope Solutions and took on other jobs from Lakesmere as well as around 100 former staff.

Lakesmere administrator Deloitte revealed the firm had collapsed with debts of £30m with HSBC owed £15m and unsecured creditors a similar amount.

The 65-year-old Davey stood down from Kace Holdings last November, handing control to managing director Chris Oatridge.

Kaicer, which was not answering calls this morning, operated out of offices in Winchester and Cannock. It is understood to have sunk owing suppliers more than £4m.

In its last set of accounts, Kace Holdings saw turnover more than halve to £14m from £32.7m in the year to February 2020 with pre-tax profit slumping from £1.4m to just £8,500. It said income had been hit by contract delays and the impact of Brexit.

Signed off by Davey in November 2020, the firm said the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on the business was “somewhat fluid at this time”.