More than 50 jobs saved after administrators appointed at facades firm FK Group

Facades contractor FK Group has appointed administrators for the business and subsidiaries FK Group and FK Facades.

Begbies Traynor, which earlier this month changed its name to BTG, said it had been appointed at the end of last week – nearly four weeks after FK Group said it was set to appoint administrators.

BTG said it had been appointed last Friday “after [FK Group] experienced significant inflationary pressures post-covid amongst other challenges”.

In the run-up to the administration, BTG said 57 staff had lost their jobs but a further 54 jobs had been transferred to Keenan Holdings, an aluminium and glazing manufacturer and installer based at the same Altrincham address as FK Group.

Joint administrator David Hopkisn said: “This is a significant restructuring of the Group’s assets and operations. The directors of the Group explored a number of avenues prior to this decision and established that this was the best route forward for all stakeholders, creditors and the future of the Group. As part of this restructuring process we will be focused on delivering the best outcome for all creditors. This will include realising the Group’s assets for the benefit of creditors.

“The leadership of the Group were focussed on delivering the best possible outcome for all creditors, and the jobs of a number of employees, together with certain contracts they were working on, have been able to continue under a new name. We hope that the skilled employees that were made redundant before our appointment are able to find new roles soon, as their talents are much needed as the industry seeks to fulfil building targets and housing demands.”

In its last set of results, FK Group booked a £5.5m exceptional item with the firm adding the figure related to a dispute “between FK Construction Limited, one of the Group’s subsidiaries and a main contractor”.

Details of the scheme are not revealed but the bust-up is understood to relate to a dispute with collapsed contractor ISG.

In the accounts, for the year to March 2024, income at the business slumped 23% to £101m with the exceptional item sending pre-tax losses jumping from £614,000 to £5.9m.

But in a note accompanying the accounts, the firm shrugged off the impact of the exceptional item adding it was in “a strong financial position at the year-end, considering the exceptional impact of the dispute, which demonstrates the solid financial position of the Group”.

Its cash pile went up from £828,000 to £5.4m, the accounts, which were signed off in February last year, show.

According to the accounts the firm, which was set up in 1979 and whose recent jobs included Sisk’s expansion of Manchester City’s Etihad stadium and which previously worked on the main stand at Liverpool, built by Carillion, employed 164 people.