EIC, a national electrical and mechanical contractor based in Warwickshire, has been placed into administration with over 300 staff jobs set to be lost.

The specialist national contractor had a turnover of £80 million and operated in six offices from Scotland to Cornwall.

Its clients included Marks & Spencer and Tesco, while it also worked for a number of major contractors including Morgan Sindall, Carillion and BAM.

The sudden collapse of the firm has shocked a number of specialists in the field as there were no warning signs relating to cash flow difficulties.

One source said that the company collapsed due to its inability to defend a winding up petition from HMRC.

Meanwhile, one of the organisation’s employees said that they were told their services would no longer be required on the Friday and received a letter just a day after.

They said that they had no inclination that the company would cease trading and 300 staff will now be without a job, as well as around 700 of its self employed staff.

The company was placed into administration on Friday morning and since then creditors have been trying to uncover the details of the collapse, however all incoming calls to the head office at Alcester have been blocked.

The firm was founded in 1971 and became an established provider of electrical and mechanical contracting services and maintenance and test solutions.

Back in 2010, the then joint directors of EIC, Nigel Le Marechal and Ian Lyall, staged a management buyout worth £40 million which was supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Phil Dove, former operational efficiency director at the Amey group, joined EIC almost three years ago to become the company’s chief executive after the MBO directors stood down.

Currently, the company is working on the headquarters of supermarket chain Aldi in Atherstone, North Warwickshire.