Worthington construction arm owed £23m at time of collapse
The construction division of Marcus Worthington Group owed more than £23m to subcontractors, funders, and suppliers when it collapsed, according to a statement of affairs prepared by the company.
Worthington Construction entered administration at the beginning of October. In several cases, individual creditors are owed more than £300,000. Administrator PwC was appointed by one of Worthington Group’s funders, the Cumberland Building Society, which is the largest creditor, owed £7.4m.
Suppliers and contractors of Worthington have collectively been left £9m out of pocket. These include:
- East Kirby Engineering, £1.3m
- Preston-based painter and decorator Raymond Wood, £439,000
- Building merchants Travis Perkins, £372,000
- Engineering company Briggs & Forrester, £334,000
- Darwen-based Red Rose Drylining Services, £301,000
Contingent liabilities add up to £4.2m, and an additional £1.8m is owed for subcontractor retentions. HMRC is owed £329,000, while the company’s employees are left to be paid a total of £744,000. Around 130 jobs are affected by the administration.
The group stressed that work on 125 Deansgate in Manchester and the North Western Halls hotel redevelopment in Liverpool will continue as the projects are being financed by an investment fund.
Marcus Worthington Properties, the development arm of Marcus Worthington Group, followed its construction arm into administration at the beginning of November. Deloitte has been called in to act as the administrator for the business, which had an investment property portfolio of £39m, according to its most recent accounts filed with Companies House.
In a statement prepared on behalf of the directors of Marcus Worthington Group, they cited “uncertainty” as the reason for its collapse: “The current economic uncertainty has led to us struggling to secure additional borrowing from our bank lenders. We have also been unable to attract fresh funding from other lenders because of these testing market conditions.”
Marcus Worthington Group’s collapses are the latest in a string of companies based in the North West, following on from Pochin’s in August and Forrest in December 2018.
