We are told that Scottish contractor Dunne Group has collapsed and is now in the hands of administrators.
Above: Dunne Group owner Gordon Dunne with his two managing directors, Kevin Graham (left) and Patrick Reel (right)
A Dunne Group employee has told The Construction Index that the company has ceased operations. All colleagues were sent home this morning (19th June 2016) and keys were handed over to the administrators.
Asked if he had been previously aware of any problems surrounding the company’s finances, he said: “It was out of the blue, to be quite frank. I was aware that there was a little bit of a cashflow porblem but I didn’t see this coming.”
Construction union Ucatt is urging its members that work for Dunne to remain on site regardless of instructions from Dunne head office while the union seeks to put pressure on the main contractor and/or client to ensure they are paid for their work.
Steve Dillon, regional secretary of Ucatt Scotland, said: “Contractors and clients approved and appointed Dunne Group to undertake work on their projects. They should have made financial checks to ensure the company was stable. It should not be the workers who have to pick up the bill for the companies collapse.”
Dunne Group was founded in 2001 in Bathgate as a concrete specialist and while its core business remains in the reinforced concrete civil and structural market, the scope of operations has widened over the years. It also has a plant hire division, called CLR, which has a fleet of cranes, excavators and concreting equipment.
The company is wholly-owned by 49-year-old civil engineer Gordon Dunne, who is originally from Ireland. He was in the office on Monday and gave no indication to employees of what was about to happen. When he came in on Tuesday morning, all staff were sent home.
Dunne Group’s most recently filed accounts show that in the year ended 31st October 2014 it made a pre-tax profit of £756,000 on turnover of £54.8m, up from £37.1m the previous year. The company’s growth has been fuelled by a £35m concrete package on the 100 Bishopsgate skyscraper project in the City of London for Brookfield Multiplex, with whom it also worked on new Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.
The next accounts for the year to 31st October 2015 were due to be filed by 31st July 2016.
Finance director Andrew Love left the company on 24th June.
CLR operations director John McCormack left a few weeks before on 18th May.
This article was published on 19 Jul 2016 (last updated on 19 Jul 2016).
