One of the UK’s biggest ductwork contractors and fabricators, Galloway Group, has fallen into administration.

The firm has a workforce of almost 200 and just 33 of these will be retained in order to wind the business down and continue to trade the DuctMate subsidiary, which has been put up for sale by administrators from Ernst & Young.

The specialist engineering and metal fabricator has a £23 million turnover, with its head office functions split between Dewsbury in West Yorkshire and Dundee.

Over the last few years, the group has worked on some of the most iconic building projects in the UK, including the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, The Millennium Dome and the British Museum in London.

The company started life trading as Tinsmiths in Dundee in 1872 and in 2008 it was bought out by a management of five executives, led by Managing Director Jim Mathieson.

However, the company struggled with mounting debts and its final salary pension scheme.

A statement from the company board read: “The business has been under considerable pressure for a number of years. Demand in our traditional construction market has been very weak since 2012 and margins have been significantly reduced.

“In the recent past, the collapse of the oil and gas sector has applied further pressure. This has meant that the business has been loss making and under cash pressure.”

It added that the firm’s directors have been working tirelessly to prevent insolvency through a series of schemes, which included raising finance, modernising the business offering and cost cutting.

The company also said that its attempts to raise funds were made more difficult by the high debt burden on the business from the final salary pension scheme and previous borrowings.

The statement concluded by stating: “This is a very sad day for a long-established Dundee company and our thoughts and best wishes are with the employees and creditors of the business.”