Pochin’s joint ventures ‘unaffected’ by administration

The future of 120 jobs at Pochin’s remains uncertain with no further updates from administrator Grant Thornton, however joint venture partners have issued statements of reassurance regarding the future of their schemes.

Grant Thornton was appointed on Monday to the eight companies which make up the Middlewich-based contractor and developer Pochin’s.

In Monday’s statement, Grant Thornton cited “legacy issues from earlier contracts” as a major component to the collapse, and said there was a “a high likelihood of redundancies” for at least some of the firm’s 120 staff.

There have been no further updates, and Pochin’s directors have been contacted but remained unavailable for comment. Pochin’s website is no longer live.

Meanwhile, statements have emerged from Pochin’s joint venture partners, offering reassurance about the future of the projects.

In Middlewich, DB Symmetry was in a joint venture with Pochin’s at Ma6nitude, an industrial and logistics park with planning consent for 1.7m sq ft of units.

According to Andrew Dickman, director at DB Symmetry: “The development at MA6NITUDE is unaffected by the sad news that the Pochin trading businesses have been placed into administration. The joint venture sits outside of this administration process. In any eventuality DB Symmetry has the ability to drive the development forward and is committed to doing so.” DB Symmetry declined to provide further comment as to the future of Pochin’s stake in the joint venture.

Pochin’s was also involved in development at the former RAF Sealand in Deeside, a project which the company has been bringing forward since before the recession.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We have been assured that the Pochin Goodman Joint Venture, which owns part of the Northern Gateway site, is not affected by Pochin’s administration process and as such we do not expect any delay to work being carried out on the development.”

Financial issues at Pochin’s are understood to have stemmed from problems in delivering work for DeTrafford in Manchester, with an ongoing dispute between the client and architect Ollier Smurthwaite over designs.

Earlier this week DeTrafford issued a statement stating work on Sky Gardens and City Gardens, the two projects Pochin were employed on, would be completed by DeTrafford’s in-house construction business. “We have issued the appropriate termination notices to Pochin and are preparing the team to complete the remaining works, largely relating to fit-out works only.”

Outside the North West, Pochin’s was also on site in Staffordshire, delivering a Hilton Hotel and apartments for Genr8 Developments in Stoke-on-Trent. A statement from Genr8 said the plan for recommencing construction would aim to “retain the services of the majority of employees and supply chain contractors many of whom are local businesses”.