Manchester ring road firm in administration

A team from Grant Thornton has been appointed joint administrators to international civil engineering and building company the Dawnus Group, today.

The firm was contracted to deliver road improvement works for Manchester and Salford.

The project was designed to reduce congestion on the ring road around Manchester and Salford city centres.

But work stopped earlier this week after subcontractors claimed they had not been paid.

A spokesperson for the Manchester-Salford Inner Relief Road scheme, which is being carried out jointly by Manchester and Salford City Councils, said this afternoon: “We have just had it officially confirmed that Dawnus – the main contractor on the Regent Road project – has gone into administration.

“Since Tuesday we have been working on contingency plans to ensure the project can continue and we will put these into action as quickly as possible.

“We recognise that commuters want to know what happens next and we will provide a definitive update as soon as we can.

“Existing staff working on the project are also a key consideration as we work to finalise next steps.”

Based in Swansea, the group has a range of offices throughout the UK, including Warrington, Birmingham, Bangor, Exeter, London, Cardiff and Thatcham.

Alistair Wardell, Matthew Richards and Philip Stephenson of Grant Thornton have been appointed joint administrators to the following entities: Dawnus Group Limited; Dawnus Construction Holdings Limited; Dawnus Developments Limited; Dawnus Southern Limited; Churchfield Homes Limited; Dawnus Limited; Quantum Geotechnical Limited; Ashbridge Construction Limited; and Legsun Limited.

The appointment does not extend over the international operations, being Dawnus International Limited, Dawnus Sierra Leone Limited or Dawnus Liberia Limited.

The Dawnus Group is a large construction group operating throughout the UK employing approximately 700 people across six regional offices and 44 construction sites.

Due to financial difficulties, stemming primarily from the downturn in the construction industry, the directors resolved to place the Dawnus Group into administration.

Alistair Wardell, restructuring partner at Grant Thornton, said: “The Dawnus Group has struggled with a wide variety of challenges and, despite significant efforts to turn the business around, unfortunately it has not been possible to rescue the group.

“As a consequence, the future cash flows has meant that the business was not in a position to continue to operate, including completing existing work in progress.”

He said: “Whilst the financial difficulties of the group were not a consequence of Brexit, there is no doubt that Brexit uncertainty impacted the ability to rescue the business.”

Mr Wardell added: “Our priority is to work with management to ensure that any impact on customers, employees and creditors, including subcontractors, is minimised.

“That process is at its early stages and key employees continue to be retained to support the required procedures.”