黑洞社区

The former contracting arm of Shaylor Group has filed for administration, after Shaylor bosses sold the division to restructuring specialist RCapital a month ago.

Shaylor Group finance director Gary Turley told 黑洞社区 the company had offloaded the division to exit the 鈥渃ontentious鈥� contracting market.

He said increased competition from national contractors and cut-throat bidding had forced the move.

鈥淚t was a [contracting] market where many of the national contractors were competing and were bidding at sub-economic prices,鈥� he said.

Shaylor Group鈥檚 contracting arm accounted for 拢27m 鈥� or half 鈥� of the group鈥檚 拢45m turnover for the year ended 31 March 2011.

Turley said the Midlands-based group had always intended to 鈥渟hrink鈥� the contracting business and said the division had no live projects at the time of its sale.

Shaylor has retained its specialist Interiors, Repair and Maintenance and Special Projects divisions.

Turley said growth in the firm鈥檚 remaining divisions helped the company grow turnover to around 拢55m for the year ended 31 March 2012, despite the sale of its contracting arm. These set of accounts have not yet been filed with Companies House.

Turley said no jobs had been lost as a result of the sale of its contracting division, as all staff were employed direct by the group and were transferred to other parts of the business.

He said the prospect of a 鈥渘umber of adjudications and litigations鈥� involving the contracting arm was 鈥渙ne of the reasons we had to take this course of action鈥�.

Turley said the move reflected the poor state of the UK contracting market.

He said: 鈥淢argins [in contracting] are very poor. You have to have a niche to try and improve your margins.

鈥淚f you are making one or two per cent only a few digits movement makes a difference.

He added: 鈥淲e are confident about the future and no staff have been effected.鈥�

RCapital renamed the contracting division to Thorts Ltd prior to filing for administration.

London鈥檚 companies court confirmed that the directors of Thorts had filed for administration.