黑洞社区

Concrete specialist Dunne Group has fallen into administration, with the loss of 524 jobs.

Workers at the firm had been sent home from sites across the UK today, prompting union Ucatt to raise concerns about the firm鈥檚 financial situation.

FRP Advisory has now confirmed it has been appointed administrator. In a statement, FRP partner Tom MacLennan said: 鈥淭his is a sad loss for the construction and building industry. The business faced substantial trading losses on some contracts, leading to severe cash flow pressures.

鈥淎dditionally, rapid expansion led to pressure on working capital and a requirement for significant additional funding that was not available.

鈥淕iven these issues, the joint administrators have had to cease trading, resulting in 524 employees being made redundant. A team of 16 staff will be retained to assist with the closure process and realisation of the business鈥� assets.

鈥淥ur priority is to work closely with all agencies and services to ensure employees receive every support and assistance at this very difficult time.鈥�

A Ucatt spokesperson said earlier 鈥渨e鈥檝e had people sent home鈥� and claimed the multiple site shutdown came 鈥渨ithout warning鈥� as far as they knew. The union has advised its members and affected workers to remain on site and contact their local Ucatt office.

Two subcontractors on luxury residential tower One Blackfriars (pictured) on London鈥檚 South Bank - where Dunne is also working as a subcontractor - told 黑洞社区 outside the site today that Dunne Group workers on the job 鈥渄idn鈥檛 come in today鈥�, but the work was otherwise unaffected.

黑洞社区 has tried to contact Dunne Group, but calls today (Tuesday) have so far gone unanswered.

Dunne Group鈥檚 latest accounts published on Companies House show a turnover of 拢54.8m for the year to October 2014, up almost half on the previous year鈥檚 turnover of 拢37.1m. The Scottish-based company made a pre-tax profit of 拢756,073 for 2014, after a loss of 拢475,878 the previous year. The firm at the time recorded 314 employees at its year-end.

A document filed at Companies House reports Dunne Group鈥檚 finance director Andrew Love resigned as a director of the company on 24 June. He had been finance director for less than a year.

Dunne Group is on a number of Brookfield Multiplex projects including 100 Bishopsgate office tower and One Blackfriars. It has also been doing superstructure concrete work at 拢100m private-rental project Highpoint in Elephant & Castle, by Mace.

Brookfield Multiplex and Mace declined to comment.