Bad debts and claims forced Astins into administration

Drylining giant Astins was forced into administration as a result of bad debts and claims from historic contracts, according to administrators from Leonard Curtis Business Rescue & Recovery.

Astins, which employed approximately 140 people and worked with over 600 self-employed sub-contractors, had been trading for 24 years and recently reported turnover in excess of £50 million per annum.

Andrew Duncan, Director at Leonard Curtis, said: “The Company has suffered recently as a result of a number of substantial bad debts and claims received from clients in respect of historic contracts, which have made it impossible for the business to continue to trade.”

The Joint Administrators, Andrew Duncan and Andy John, confirmed that the majority of the 140 employees have been made redundant, with a small number retained to assist the Joint Administrators for a short period.

Andrew  Duncan continued: “Our focus is now on ensuring that the Company’s employees receive their claim entitlements from the Redundancy Payments Service as soon as possible and making sure that any value held in the Company’s current contracts and other assets is preserved for the benefit of creditors.”