The Cast Iron Company Limited (02413240): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2012-09-27
- Administrators
- Tony James Thompson
- Incorporated
- 1989-08-14
- Location
- Weybridge
- Industry
- 47990 Other retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets
Why it went into administration
- Rising costs / inflation
- Creditor pressure / legal action
- Competition / price pressure
From the administrators' statement
The Company was started in 1989 and was orginally based in Richmond/Twickenham In 2005 the Company relocated to an office near Guildford The Company, to begin with traded in street furniture products and then, after approximately 7 years, started to get involved in architectural metalwork restoration Although originally the Company was primanily a street furniture concern the architectural metalwork market became an increasingly important strand of the Company’s business Street furniture on its own was becoming an increasingly competitive and crowded industry and with the recession now taking hold, with counci! cut backs etc , the Company decided to concentrate its marketing efforts on architectural metalwork projects
With such an uncertain economic backdrop, a major architectural metalwork contract presented itself, when, in 2009, having been approached by Skanska Civil Engineering, the Company tendered for a contract which would involve restoring the historic Borough Market roof as well as providing two additional roofs The project \s part of the Borough Market Viaduct Proyect and the ultrmate client is Network Rail This was the largest contract that the Company had ever won, and although there were concerns about its complexity and the fact that It was rail related, the Company were assured by Skanska that they would help with the complex paper tratl that working in the rail industry necessitates Unfortunately, the Company does not believe that the promise of help was kept which resulted in ever increasing project management/paperwork requirements, plus additional staff, totaling some 5 full-time and 1 part-time sub-contracted employees to run the project
Notwithstanding the administrative burden that was piaced upon the Company, the first two years of the proyect went well in terms of the dismantling and restoration of the market roof However, significant changes to the specification, by the client, resulted in increased costs_ | am advised by the director, that the Company was asked to take on these costs, by Skanska, on the basis that the Company would be reimbursed by the usual system of variation claims When this process commenced a substantial variation claim of approximately £1 millon was submitted Network Rail had started to agree the variations, authorizing the first payment !am advised Skanska, however, cancelled the promised payment of approx £100,000 causing the Company cash flow issues The payment was due on Monday 23 July and was apparently cancelled on Thursday 19 July Following this Skanska decided to take over the contract from the Company but did not cancel the contract itself
Administrators' statement of proposals (2012-11-19) · Companies House register