Jobs go as contractor Finleys fails

AROUND 80 jobs have been lost at a North West building and maintenance company which has gone into administration.

FT Finley & Co, based in Reddish, Stockport, called in administrators from FRP Advisory on Monday amid financial difficulties and a deterioration in trading conditions.

The final nail in the coffin of the family firm was when a potential purchaser withdrew its interest last month. Last year the company revealed plans to double turnover to £10m as it moved to a new HQ.

In a statement, joint administrators Russell Cash and David Thornhill, partners at FRP Advisory said:
“Finleys is a long established family firm based in Reddish near Stockport and works with a number of local authorities and housing associations carrying out repairs and re-fits to housing stock.

“The company had faced financial difficulties for some time putting severe pressure on cash-flow and following the withdrawal of interest by a potential purchaser of the business last month, the directors were left with no viable options for the ongoing business and reluctantly placed the company into administration.

“Following their appointment as joint administrators and after an immediate review of the business’ current work in progress, the joint administrators concluded that the company could not continue to trade and approximately 80 members of staff have been made redundant.”

David Thornhill said: “”The closure of Finleys is a sad day for this long-established business, its hard-working loyal workforce and the wider Stockport economy. The social housing repair and maintenance market has been challenging for some time and Finleys regrettably is the latest firm to feel the squeeze.

“The directors and their advisers had worked hard to sell the business as a going concern and it was disappointing in September when a potential purchaser withdrew its interest, leaving the directors with no viable option but to seek the protection of administration.

“We will now be marketing the company’s remaining assets and concentrating on realising as much as possible in the best interests of all creditors. As joint administrators our immediate focus is to assist the 80 staff who have lost their jobs and provide them with the necessary support to submit timely claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”