Two Green Deal providers fall into administration just hours apart

Solar panels

Solar panel and insulation installer Mark Group has entered administration, with the loss of over 900 jobs.

In a statement, the firm said: 鈥淥n Wednesday Mark Group鈥檚 managers bought the business from SunEdison and, after taking advice, have taken the regrettable decision to put the business into administration.

鈥淭his decision has not been taken lightly but the ongoing losses of the business meant it was our only option. The turnaround plan, which was already underway, focused on solar PV but the Government鈥檚 recent policy announcements mean this is no longer viable.鈥

Administrators from Deloitte have been appointed to the Leicester-based firm, which has made 939 redundancies.

Chris Farrington, one of the joint administrators from Deloitte, said: 鈥淯nfortunately, the company has sustained heavy losses due to structural changes in its core markets, which it has been unable to survive, despite some significant recent investment.

鈥淲ith regret, the administrators are having to make a significant number of redundancies, but are working with remaining employees to secure an urgent sale of the ongoing business.

鈥淧rospective purchasers are encouraged to contact the administrators as soon as possible.鈥

Deloitte said all of the PV customer contracts are with parent firm SunEdison, not Mark Group, and SunEdison 鈥渨ill continue to look after our existing customers, honouring existing planned installations via our channel partners鈥. The new build insulation business will continue to trade for a short period of time while a 鈥渟ale of the business and assets is pursued鈥.

Meanwhile another Green Deal provider, Climate Energy, also announced it has entered administration this week with administrators at FTI Consulting taking over.

All of the group鈥檚 companies - Climate Energy Limited, Climate Energy Services Limited, Climate Energy Solutions Limited and Climate Energy (NFP) Limited 鈥 have ceased trading.

The firm posted a turnover of 拢46.8m in 2014 and, at the time of the administration, employed 128 people.

A spokeswoman for FTI said the 鈥渨ithdrawal of public subsidies is a contributory factor to the failure of the business鈥, but added that the business 鈥渇aced other challenges and attempts to diversify the business were also ultimately unsuccessful.鈥

In a letter to subcontractors, Andrew Johnson at FTI said on behalf of the administrators: 鈥淭he administrators are not in a position to continue to trade the companies following the administration.

鈥淗owever, we are endeavouring to migrate the work in progress and orders to a potential purchaser.

鈥淒iscussions with a potential acquirer are ongoing and we will keep you appraised, given that we would expect them to desire an orderly completion of working progress.

鈥淭o the extent these discussions do not lead to a transfer we will liaise with relevant local authorities/housing associations to again look for an orderly process in relation to work in progress.鈥

The letter added: 鈥淯nfortunately since the companies are in administration they are not in a position to make any payments to unsecured creditors at this time.鈥

A Department for Energy and Climate Change spokesperson said: 鈥淎ll job losses are regrettable and we sympathise with those affected, but commercial decisions are a matter for the company concerned. Our priority is to keep bills as low as possible for hardworking families and businesses.

鈥淕overnment support has driven down the cost of renewable energy significantly and these costs are continuing to fall. We are protecting existing investment and bill payers, while reducing our emissions in the most cost-effective way.鈥