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Administration · 6 February 2024

Readie Construction

Main contractor · London · Greater London

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What happened

READIE CONSTRUCTION LIMITED (company number 06069233), incorporated in 2007, entered administration on 6 February 2024. Its status at Companies House is now: administration.

Why it failed

Fixed-price contracts were hit by post-Covid and Ukraine war inflation and subcontractor failures; sureties, banks and a client then withdrew support, leaving an unfillable cash gap.

  • Main reason: Cost inflation
  • Losses on contracts
  • Covid-19
  • Cash flow
  • Funding withdrawn
  • Clients not paying or failing
  • Delays
  • Market downturn
  • Sale or investment failed

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. 30 September 2021

    Last payment practices report ends: average 32 days to pay, 30% of invoices not paid to agreed terms

    18 months later

  2. 31 March 2023

    Last accounts filed were made up to this date

    11 months later

  3. 6 February 2024

    Administration started

AccountsPayment reportInsolvency

Before it failed

Key figures

Turnover in its last accounts, year to Mar 2023
£421.1m
Accounts at Companies House
Profit before tax, year to Mar 2023
£1.7m
Accounts at Companies House
Staff, year to Mar 2023
260
Accounts at Companies House
Net assets, year to Mar 2023
£1.8m
Accounts at Companies House
Average days to pay suppliers, 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021
32 days
5% paid after 60 days, 30% not paid to agreed terms
Its last payment practices report
Owed to unsecured creditors (estimated), as at 6 February 2024
£26.1m
of which trade creditors £6.0m. HMRC owed £6.2m. staff owed £1.7m. Expected return to unsecured creditors: none expected
Administrators' proposals

The last accounts filed were full accounts made up to 31 March 2023, 10 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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