Contracting firm Geoffrey Osborne has filed for administration.
A notice announcing the company’s intention to appoint adminstrators was filed with the High Court shortly before 4pm yesterday by legal representative Macfarlanes.
The former civils company had not filed accounts for almost two years – in July 2022 it announced turnover of £325.8m for the year ending 30 September 2021.
It returned to profit, making £2m during the period, after losing £13.8m in the previous 18 month accounting period ending 30 September 2020, largely due to the sale of its infrastructure division.
During the latest accounting period, the firm said that it had an average of 870 employees.
Data from construction research firm Glenigan shows the firm has 71 live contracts with clients – mostly local authorities and central government departments and agencies.
It is also on a number of public sector and housing association frameworks, including a £10m housing retrofits framework for the Greater London Authority.
In its latest accounts, the firm said that 37 per cent of the firm’s contracting activities came from rail work, with 23 per cent in highways.
Other revenue came from education, commercial, along with construction and maintenance work in the affordable housing sector.
However, following the sale of the infrastructure business, the firm said its construction business would focus on social infrastructure projects, “emphasising its net zero carbon approach and concentrating on the education and residential sectors including purpose-built student accommodation, local authority housing, mixed-use schemes and modular projects.
On maintenance, it said that housing retrofit work to meet government net zero targets provided “a promising source of future revenue”.
