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Administration · 18 February 2025

Acheson Construction

Main contractor · Dorchester · South West England

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What happened

ACHESON CONSTRUCTION LIMITED (company number 02252129), incorporated in 1988, entered administration on 18 February 2025. Its status at Companies House is now: administration.

Why it failed

Higher costs on fixed-price legacy projects and delayed project starts caused losses and a forecast cash shortfall, worsened by an ongoing claim against a client; funding was lacking.

  • Main reason: Losses on contracts
  • Delays
  • Cash flow
  • Clients not paying or failing

Our summary of the reasons given in the administrators' proposals. These record the administrators' and directors' account of what happened.

An administrator, a licensed insolvency practitioner, takes control of the company to try to rescue it, sell the business or get a better result for creditors than a liquidation.

Timeline

The last accounts and payment report before the failure, then what happened, with the time between each.

  1. 29 December 2023

    Last accounts filed were made up to this date

    14 months later

  2. 18 February 2025

    Administration started

AccountsPayment reportInsolvency

Before it failed

Key figures

Profit before tax, year to Dec 2023
£46k
Accounts at Companies House
Staff, year to Dec 2023
88
Accounts at Companies House
Net assets, year to Dec 2023
£1.9m
Accounts at Companies House
Owed to unsecured creditors (estimated), as at 18 February 2025
£8.5m
of which trade creditors £629k. about 546 creditors. HMRC owed £935k. Expected return to unsecured creditors: not yet known
Administrators' proposals (includes £5.7m owed to subcontractors)

The last accounts filed were full accounts made up to 29 December 2023, 14 months before it went into administration.

The full filing history, including any late filings, charges and director changes, is on Companies House.

Lessons learned report

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