Civil engineer RC Group is forced into administration as work dries up for small civils firms in North-west

About 300 jobs are under threat at a Lancashire civil engineering firm after it was forced into administration.

Burnley-based RC Group, which has a turnover of 拢30m, called in the administrators at the end of last week after struggling to find work in the region. It is understood that the administrator, DTE Leonard Curtis, is trying to save as many jobs as possible within the company.

It is also understood that the firm鈥檚 final decision to call in the administrator may have been precipitated by contractual disputes.

RC Group, whose projects have included the Spinningfields business park in Manchester, had been experiencing problems since last year. At the end of 2004 it withdrew its membership of trade body the Civil Engineering Contractors Association on the basis of decreasing civil engineering turnover in the North-west. Last week it advised the organisation that it had gone into administration.

Ian Robinson, a director at the north-west region of CECA, said RC Group was one of a number of small to medium-sized companies in the region that had suffered a reduction in workload, largely because of the prevalence of partnering agreements that favoured large firms.

Civils companies who focus on traditional areas are finding it hard to compete for work

Ian Robinson, CECA

He said: 鈥淎lthough framework and partnering agreements are supposed to cascade work down to the smaller firms, in reality the programmes are heavily loaded towards large companies. A lot of civil engineering firms are now excluded from their traditional marketplaces for clients such as the Highways Agency and utilities companies. A lot of our members have found it very hard to keep their turnover running over the past 12 to 18 months, and will continue to do so.鈥�

Robinson said that another small civil engineering firm, Lakes Engineering, went under last year because of these problems. He added that many smaller firms were having to redirect their services in order to stay afloat.

He said: 鈥淔irms with building wings have managed to keep themselves busy, and many of our companies have made fairly radical reappraisals of their markets. It is the civils companies who focus exclusively on the traditional areas of groundworks and infrastructure that are finding it hard to compete for work. There is only a very small number of contracts available in the region outside the large partnering deals.鈥�

RC Group and DTE Leonard Curtis were both unavailable for comment.