Dafw Realisations Limited (03038935): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2019-10-22
- Administrators
- Mark Malone, Lloyd Christopher Biscoe
- Administrators' firm
- Begbies Traynor
- Formerly
- Building Services Design (Cambridge) Limited; Boostdrive Limited
- Incorporated
- 1995-03-28
- Location
- Birmingham
- Industry
- 71129 Other engineering activities
Why it went into administration
- HMRC / tax arrears
- Loss of a key customer, supplier or contract
- Sustained trading losses
- Cash flow / liquidity pressure
- Brexit
- Competition / price pressure
From the administrators' statement
The Company was incorporated in March 1995 by David White and David Featherstone. The Company grew steadily over several years becoming over time a well established, large practice of building services consulting engineers (M&E consultants). its principle purpose was to provide mechanical and electrical consultancy services, covering new buildings, extensions and refurbishments within the construction industry, with project values from £0.5m to over £100m.
By March 2018 the Company had a tumover of circa £5m and operated from leasehold premises at several Office locations in the UK to include Kettering, London, Birmingham, Cambridge and Saiford, employing approximately 60 staff. The Company had a business loan with HSBC Bank Ple (“HSBC”) and Funding Circle Limited. The purposes of these loans were business expansion and growth. HSBC held security over the Company which was registered at Companies House. Inksmoor Capital Limited also held a cross guaranteed debenture over the Company which related to a property purchase by the Company's sole shareholder, Building Services Design (Holdings) Limited.
In 2015 the Company had entered into five year lease at a premises in Leicester. The cost of setting up the office including investment in computer systems and furnishings was circa 80k. However, 18 months later in July 2017, a senior member of the management team at the Leicester office, together with 2 employees, left the Company and set up a business in competition. The loss of these key staff meant that the Leicester Office was no longer sustainable and it collapsed. In addition, and during this period, it became apparent that there were a number of projects with outstanding issues and the Company was left with a number of legacy projects which required significant costs to rectify and complete; resulting in some projects being completed at a significant loss. For instance, a large residential project in London was completed at a significant loss during 2018/2019 and the Company had to employ significant contract staff to progress this project at a cost of £250K. This was a very challenging period for the Company and the loss of these staff adversely affected other offices such as Birmingham and there was also some damage to the Company’s reputation which affected its ability …
Administrators' statement of proposals (2019-11-12) · Companies House register