Pochin goes into administration

Above: The Hilton Garden Inn is currently under construction as part of Hanley’s Smithfield development

Grant Thornton have been appointed joint administrators to eight businesses within the Pochin’s group of companies.

The family-owned property and construction business was founded in the town, in the 1930s and currently employs 120 working on a number of high-profile construction projects in the North West.

In the past year the construction business, with a new management team on board, had secured a pipeline of work, however, the company has stated that legacy issues from earlier contracts became too great a burden leading to difficult trading conditions.

We understand the group’s board explored a number of options in an effort to preserve the group’s trading status over recent months, including injections of significant levels of capital from shareholders and the sale of the group’s property portfolio. Despite efforts, the challenges have proven insurmountable and the decision was reached by the directors to place a number of entities in the group into administration.

This includes the main trading entities of Pochin’s Ltd, Pochin Construction Ltd and six other subsidiaries.

Sarah O’Toole, of adminstrators Grant Thornton, said: “Whilst it is very early days, this may result in a number of redundancies and the companies ceasing to trade. The joint administrators will continue to review options to ensure the best possible outcome for creditors.”

Trade publication Construction Enquirer has reported that subcontractors had been turned away from a number of Pochin construction sites.

It reported that security guards were turned away from the Pochin’s Hilton Hotel site in Stoke, which was topped out only two weeks ago.