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Administration · 2 May 2023

Howard Russell Construction

Main contractor · Cramlington · North East England

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What happened

HOWARD RUSSELL CONSTRUCTION LIMITED (company number 03390492), incorporated in 1997, entered administration on 2 May 2023. Its status at Companies House is now: liquidation.

Why it failed

Delays on contracts brought large penalties, while defect claims and counterclaims on completed projects, higher labour and material costs and Covid-19 restrictions hurt profitability; turnaround attempts failed.

  • Main reason: Delays
  • Losses on contracts
  • Legal claims
  • Cost inflation
  • Covid-19

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. 31 March 2022

    Last accounts filed were made up to this date

    14 months later

  2. 2 May 2023

    Administration started

    11 months later

  3. 29 April 2024

    Administration ended

  4. 29 April 2024

    Creditors' voluntary liquidation started (shareholders resolved to wind up)

AccountsPayment reportInsolvency

Before it failed

Key figures

Turnover in its last accounts, year to Mar 2022
£43.5m
Accounts at Companies House
Profit before tax, year to Mar 2022
£790k
Accounts at Companies House
Staff, year to Mar 2022
31
Accounts at Companies House
Net assets, year to Mar 2022
£2.2m
Accounts at Companies House
Owed to unsecured creditors (estimated), as at 2 May 2023
£5.0m
of which trade creditors £4.6m. HMRC owed £410k. Expected return to unsecured creditors: expected, amount not yet known
Administrators' proposals

The last accounts filed were full accounts made up to 31 March 2022, 13 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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