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Simons first began to run into problems three years ago as a string of creditors wait to see if the firm鈥檚 shock administration will leave them out of pocket.

The firm鈥檚 directors called in accountant FRP Advisory yesterday, ending 75 years of trading at one of the country鈥檚 best-known regional contractors.

According to the group鈥檚 latest report and accounts for the year to March 2018, the firm owed trade creditors more than 拢29m.

The same accounts show Simons was owed more than 拢23m for 鈥渁mounts recoverable on long term contracts鈥�.

Accounts for the previous period, the 12 months to March 2017, show that Simons Group nosedived into the red after three straight years of profit.

During this period, it slumped to a pre-tax loss of 拢3.8m from a 拢109,000 pre-tax profit in 2016 with executive chairman Paul Hodgkinson blaming a 鈥渟ignificant鈥� loss on one job on the outskirts of London.

In a note accompanying the accounts, signed at the beginning of July 2017, Hodgkinson, who along with his brother Philip had handed over day-to-day control of the family-run business after 28 years to a new management team three years earlier, said: 鈥淲e had one particularly poor construction project, where the current results represents a significant loss. We are now engaged in the recovery of our costs.鈥�

He said the firm had also been hit by the fallout following the EU referendum in June 2016 which saw five jobs cancelled or delayed. 鈥淭his left a huge hole in our forward workload,鈥� he added.

Hodgkinson also said its development pipeline 鈥渟truggled to get projects to a tradeable position鈥� and added that its final salary pension scheme, which it shut in 2006 after closing it to new members six years earlier, had 鈥渟ignificantly damaged鈥� its result and balance sheet.

Its pension liability was 拢11.3m according to its latest accounts for 2018, adding that it expected to make a 拢1m payment to its defined pension benefit scheme this year.

The problems detailed by Hodgkinson prompted the firm to rejig the business in its 2016/17 financial year which saw it shell out 拢621,000 in restructuring costs, its second exceptional item in a row having racked up a 拢754,000 hit in 2016 on a legal dispute with a subcontractor on a job dating back to 2012.

Simons admitted the settlement 鈥渨as in excess of original estimations鈥� and included 鈥渁 significant level of legal and professional costs鈥�.

Turnover in 2017 slumped 16% to 拢120m and went down further still the following year to 拢105m 鈥� a fall of 13%.

Simons returned to the black in the year to March 2018, posting a pre-tax profit of 拢704,000 鈥� but the accounts for that period show staff numbers, which were consistently around the 210 mark between 2014 and 2017, had slipped 15% to 182 and at the time of yesterday鈥檚 administration had slipped again, this time by a third to 124.

Following its implosion, a string of Simons jobs have now been mothballed 鈥� including a cinema and office complex in Basildon, Essex, and the revamp of a shopping complex off Upper Street in north London called Angel Central 鈥� while FRP Advisory looks to novate existing contracts across to new builders which it said was part of the 鈥渙rderly wind down of the business of the construction business鈥�.

News of the firm鈥檚 collapse caught many off-guard but FRP said it had been brought in by the firm鈥檚 directors because 鈥渦nsustainable cashflow difficulties鈥� had made it impossible for the firm to continue trading.

It is expected that most of the firm鈥檚 existing 124 staff will be laid off within the coming days.