Warners M&E in administration

The directors of Warners M&E, which can trace its history back to 1845 and has an annual turnover of £9 million, called in administrators on 11 March.

Warners was a subsidiary of parent company Haymills Construction. Haymills has decided not to pump more money into the company.

David Merrygold, corporate recovery partner of PKF Accountants and Business Advisers, who is one of the joint administrators, said: “Warners, a long-established Ipswich firm, is feeling the effects of the downturn in the construction industry.

“We are seeing employers and main contractors not paying bills on time for the work the smaller subcontractors have done. This in turn leads to cash flow problems as is the case with Warners.”

A total of 51 of the 90 staff were made redundant on 11 March. The rest were kept in place to take care of existing contracts or transferred to Haymills.

Andrew Harper, managing director of Warners, added: “Our parent company Haymills took the decision not to support its subsidiary company Warners M&E. This left us with no option but to call in the administrators.”

Despite a cash injection of £300 000 two years ago and management changes that brought a small profit in 2006/07, problems on a number of contracts and a lack of workload led to a crunch point, said a statement from Haymills. “As a result, further investment was therefore not an option Haymills would entertain.”