Jehu Group goes after more than 85 years in business
Administrator Begbies Traynor said fixed-price jobs agreed before the pandemic only to jump by eye-watering amounts helped sink Welsh firm Jehu Group.
The Bridgend-based contractor and developer formally went into administration last Friday, a week after Begbies Traynor was called in to help put the business and sister companies Jehu Project Services and Waterstone Homes into administration.
Joint administrator Huw Powell said cost increases of 25% on fixed-price jobs had ransacked the firm’s cash reserves.
He added: “This situation underlines the crushing impact of the current inflationary environment on an established and successful business. Pre-pandemic, the group was highly profitable and by 2019 had almost £7m in net assets.
“Delays in completing projects caused by the pandemic and subsequent cost increases caused a severe cash-flow crisis that it could not recover from.”
Jehu was set up in 1935 by Jack Jehu and had remained family-run ever since.
The group had 15 live projects for registered social landlords and local authorities in Wales and the South-west at the time of its collapse which saw 104 people lose their jobs.
In a statement, directors Marc and Simon Jehu, said: “Every possible option to keep the business alive has been completely exhausted and it with desolate hearts that we find ourselves with no choice but to cease trading. We did everything possible to avoid closure, but we were fighting a battle that simply couldn’t be won due to the successive economic shocks of the past couple of years.”
In its last set of results filed at Companies House, Jehu Group, which includes the stricken project services and Waterstone arms, had a turnover of £111m but made a pre-tax loss of £4m in the 18 months to September 2020. In the year to March 2019, income was £52m with the firm posting a pre-tax profit of £1.1m.
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