Failures in 2019

UK construction companies that went bust in 2019

Failures in 2019: 15
In 2018: 16
Largest: Interserve

15 construction companies in our register failed in 2019, against 16 in 2018. Of these, 13 were administrations, 1 was a creditors' voluntary liquidation and 1 was a company voluntary arrangement.

The largest was Interserve, with turnover of £2.9bn in its last accounts. 9 were main contractors, the most of any type of business. Companies in the same group are counted separately (3 from Pochin and 2 from Simons).

Failures by month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

The most in one month was 3, in March.

The biggest failures of 2019

Ranked by turnover in each company's last accounts before it failed, with the largest company in each group.

#	Company	Failed	Last turnover	Staff	Owed to creditors
1	Interserve	Mar 2019	£2.9bn	41,423	£815mto lenders
2	Clugston Construction	Dec 2019	£158m	441	£71m
3	Shaylor Group	Jun 2019	£142m	244	£19m
4	Dawnus Construction Holdings	Mar 2019	£118m	260	£55m
5	Simons Group	Oct 2019	£104m	182	£16m
6	Lakehouse Contracts	Mar 2019	£96m	228	£10m
7	Redcastle	Jun 2019	£73m		£15m
8	Pochin's	Aug 2019	£59m	117	£70m
9	Aspin Group	Jul 2019	£40m	218	£5m
10	PMP Construction	Oct 2019	£18m	231	£2m

Why they failed

The reasons given in the insolvency reports for the companies that failed in 2019.

Cash flow82%
Losses on contracts64%
Clients not paying or failing45%
Sale or investment failed45%
Market downturn36%
Delays27%

Share of the 11 failures (each group counted once) whose insolvency reports explain why the business failed. Most give several reasons, so the shares add up to more than 100%. Each failure's page shows its own reasons and links to the report.

By type of insolvency

Administration13
Creditors' voluntary liquidation1
Company voluntary arrangement1

By region

Where the company was based before it failed.

Every failure in 2019

Company	What happened	Date	Sector	Region
Bardsley Construction	Administration	19 Dec	Main contractor	North West England
Clugston Construction	Administration	6 Dec	Main contractor	Yorkshire and the Humber
Simons GroupPart of Simons	Administration	29 Oct	Main contractor	East Midlands
Simons ConstructionPart of Simons	Administration	29 Oct	Main contractor	East Midlands
PMP Construction	Creditors' voluntary liquidation	28 Oct	Main contractor	Greater London
Pochin'sPart of Pochin	Administration	5 Aug	Construction	North West England
Pochin ConstructionPart of Pochin	Administration	5 Aug	Main contractor	North West England
Pochin ResidentialPart of Pochin	Administration	5 Aug	Housebuilder	North West England
Aspin Group	Administration	11 Jul	Main contractor	East Anglia
Shaylor Group	Administration	17 Jun	Main contractor	West Midlands
Redcastle	Company voluntary arrangement	12 Jun	Developer	Greater London
Dawnus Construction Holdings	Administration	15 Mar	Main contractor	South Wales
Interserve	Administration	15 Mar	Construction	South East England
Lakehouse Contracts	Administration	11 Mar	Housebuilder	East Anglia
Newman Scott	Administration	7 Feb	Specialist trade	North East England

Other years

Our register covers larger UK construction companies (those filing full, group or medium-sized accounts) plus well-known failures, from Companies House and The Gazette. It doesn't include every insolvency: the Insolvency Service's official statistics count all construction company insolvencies, most of them small firms. Turnover comes from each company's last accounts and what was owed from the administrators' or liquidators' reports.