Foster and Partners' landmark 51 Lime Street tower in the City of London has been delayed by three months by the demise of its cladding contractor.

The contractor, Schmidlin UK, was handling the cladding for the 29-storey tower, which will be situated opposite the Lloyd's building in the City of London. However, it was forced to end its involvement after its Swiss parent company, Schmidlin Facade Technology, declared itself bankrupt in February this year.

A source close to the project confirmed that the £120m scheme was behind schedule.

He said: "The tower is now about three months behind, but we're expecting a cladding appointment to be made in the very near future."

The office tower will be used as the headquarters of broker Willis when it is completed. Stanhope is the client, Mace is the construction manager and the site is owned by British Land.

The tower is about three months behind

Source close to the project

A number of other prominent projects in London were hit by the collapse of Schmidlin Facade Technology.

These included Multiplex's White City development in west London, a contract that has now been awarded to Italian cladding company Permasteelisa.

Schmidlin Facade Technology, which had been in the red since 2003, has since been bought by German materials group TSK Troester.