17 Jun 2011
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Firms go under but jobs saved

One of Scotland’s oldest civil engineering firms, Mckean, has gone under while housing maintenance specialist Kinetics Group is to be placed in liquidation, Construction Enquirer reported.

Scottish civil engineering contractor McKean & Company (Glasgow) has gone into administration with the loss of 40 jobs.

The contractor was established just after the first World War and in recent times has counted Skanska, Sir Robert McAlpine and Bellway among its clients.

Directors David Noar and Mark Fallon bought the £40m turnover contractor from the founding family two years ago for a reported £1m.

Up to forty staff were sent home after being told that the company and its sister business, Hudson Vision, was going into liquidation.

Ernst & Young is expected to take on the job of liquidator of McKean & Company and Hudson Vision, which specialised in CCTV and electrical maintenance work.

In a separate story, Construction Enquirer reported that housing maintenance specialist, Kinetics Group, has been been placed in administration.

But while administrator Zolfo Cooper said it had laid off 273 staff a prepack deal with a company called SCP Renewable Energy has saved the majority of jobs at the failed Kinetics Group.

A spokesman for Zolfo Cooper said: “Administrators are in talks with various parties at the moment to try to preserve as many jobs as possible. At present it looks like around 643 jobs are safe.”

Kinetics Group social housing repairs division DC Group was wound-up in the High Court while gas installation arm Seaflame went into administration. But a new company, SCP Renewable Energy, has bought the shares and assets of three companies within the Kinetics Group.

The three companies bought from Zolfo Cooper are expected to be renamed and will trade as Kinetics North, Midlands and South in future.

It is hoped most contracts held by the Kinetics Group will be novated to the new company helping to protect many of the jobs at risk.

The Kinetics Group employed around 1,000 staff through its various trading companies before it was placed in administration.

Around 450 people were employed by DC Group on a contract for Liverpool Mutual Homes and the hope is to transfer most over to a new contractor when LMH re-tenders the contract.