All 170 staff made redundant at 129-year-old builder

Historic contractor Holloway White Allom has fallen into administration, with all 175 staff put out of work.

The 129-year-old builder – which re-built the Bank of England and constructed the Old Bailey and Trafalgar Square’s fountains – was placed into administration last Wednesday.

In recent years the company specialised in luxury fit-out and high-end residential, achieving a peak turnover of £90m.

Private equity firm Privet Capital stepped in to save the contractor earlier this year after it began to encounter financial difficulties.

But Privet director Stephen Keating said problems with “one particular contract” had pulled the contractor under.

Keating said: “It has been struggling for a while now. We put in some cash but we had a particular problem with one contract, which was the main issue.”

Credit reference agency Top Service Credit said it had been closely monitoring the firm for “some time” following a number of reports of late payment.

A spokesperson added: “There has been an up-turn in work over the Summer but many companies seem to be struggling to finance the increase in work and are using trade creditors and HMRC as lines of finance”.

KPMG has been appointed as administrator of Holloway White Allom.

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