Building firm collapses with 120 jobs under threat

A family building firm founded in the 1930s has gone into administration, putting 120 jobs at risk.

Pochin construction and property, based in Middlewich, Cheshire, has called in liquidators amid problems it said were caused by past contracts.

Directors said the challenges faced by the group’s two main companies and six subsidiaries were “insurmountable”.

The firm had been building retirement properties in Southport and Chester as well as a hotel in Stoke-on-Trent.

Administrators Grant Thornton UK said “the legacy issues from earlier contracts became too great a burden leading to difficult trading conditions”, despite new business secured over the past year.

They said directors injected more cash and sold its property portfolio but found “the impact of the challenges have proven insurmountable”.

Grant Thornton’s Sarah O’Toole did not rule out the closure of some of the firm’s companies and the possibility of redundancies.

She added: “The administrators will continue to review options to ensure the best possible outcome for creditors.”

The company was formed as a joinery by Cedric Pochin in the 1930s in a workshop in Castlefield in Manchester.

During World War Two, it produced ammunition boxes for the Army and rum jars for the navy as well as building RAF barracks.

By the turn of the millennium it was working on Citigroup’s Tower Site at Canary Wharf in London.

Developers Genr8, which employed Pochin to build the £20m Hilton Garden Inn and 151 apartments in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, said it would pursue the completion the project as planned.

Chris Hughes, chief finance officer with Belong, a care organisation which is opening care villages in Birkdale and Chester said it was “deeply regrettable” the firm had gone into administration.

He added the company was “implementing contingency plans” and liaising with the administrators to “minimise” the delays to both projects.