Eight companies operating as part of the Pochin's Group have entered administration, with a number of jobs on the line.
Based in Middlewich and founded in the 1930s, the family-owned property and construction specialist employs a workforce of 120 and has been involved in a number of high profile projects across the North West.
In the past year – and with a new management team on board – Pochin's had established a platform for growth, developed client relationships and secured a pipeline of profitable new work and opportunities.
However, despite the renewed optimism, legacy issues from earlier contracts "became too great a burden, leading to difficult trading conditions".
The group's board has explored a number of options in an effort to preserve its trading status over recent months, including injections of significant levels of capital from shareholders and the sale of its property portfolio.
Despite these efforts, the impact of the aforementioned challenges has "proven insurmountable and the difficult decision was reached by the directors to place a number of entities in the group into administration". This includes the main trading companies of Pochin's Ltd, Pochin Construction Ltd and six others.
Sarah O'Toole and Jason Bell of Grant Thornton UK have today (5 August) been appointed joint administrators to all eight.
"While it is very early days, this may result in a number of redundancies and the companies ceasing to trade," said O'Toole. "The joint administrators will continue to review options to ensure the best possible outcome for creditors."