Longcross Construction enters into administration

Surrey-based retail contractor Longcross Construction has gone into administration following the decline in supermarket construction spend.

Administrators from Deloitte have been appointed to the £190m-turnover firm, which has about 140 employees, and work on its sites has been suspended.

Administrator Lee Manning said Longcross Construction “had been quite focused on the grocery business where cutbacks have been made on store expansions and refits.

“The directors concluded that the company was unable to continue to trade on this basis and resolved to place the company into administration. Work on site has been suspended while the joint administrators are considering the position.”

Longcross Construction posted a pre-tax loss of £1.35m in its full-year results to March 2014 on turnover of £190m, compared with a pre-tax profit of £560,000 the previous year on £187m turnover.

The contractor is part of the £231m-turnover Longcross Group, which posted a pre-tax loss of £1.25m in its full-year results to March 2014.

The directors of Longcross Group have also filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators to Longcross Group Limited.

However, no other subsidiary or related company has gone into administration and a statement on Longcross Construction’s website said all other companies within the group are trading normally.

The group, at the time of its last results, blamed the loss on the costs of remedial works for a project in its construction division.

Longcross Group is based in Ashtead, Surrey. It made its name in the retail sector, winning a string of contracts with big supermarkets.

But its most recent accounts showed it was seeking work outside its “historic core workload” in the sector, which accounted for less than 35% of the group’s turnover.

The group also has offices in Sheffield and Sidcup, Kent, which belong to related company LX Engineering, an M&E specialist with around 75 employees, as well as an office in Kings Hill, Kent, housing another related company, Longcross Fire and Security.

Longcross Fire and Security and LX Engineering have stated they are trading normally and are not affected by Longcross Construction going into administration.