[jasonl]

Been cleaning common areas for them , they are 3 months late with money , got an E-mail last week saying I will be paid today , Nothing!  Just heard they may be going under. £4622 owed to me 

[JandS]

Brother in Law's friend gets a lot of sub contract work from
them laying flooring.
Think he's out to the tune of about £60,000 to them, some of that's
materials.

John

[clinton]

Yes me too two guys from biking have also been layed off with no money..Dont think they will get any money either now.

[Neil Williams]

This is tragic for those small businesses like ourselves and employees of those companies, but there could be worse to come having trawled the net about Connaught.

The failure of the firm will set alarm bells ringing among other companies reliant on government contracts. Schools IT company RM Group has recently said that contracts worth £200m are at risk due to the scaling back of the government's school building programme, while the construction firm Balfour Beatty and Cable & Wireless have also warned about the impact of spending cuts. According to figures published last month, the number of firms going bust in the health, social services, education and defence sectors has increased by almost 50% this year.

[scrubadub]

on the news tonight that connaught are going into administration so they probably will never see their money

[jasonl]

on the news tonight that connaught are going into administration so they probably will never see their money

Cheers for that  :

[The Great One]

Social housing firm Connaught, which employs 10,000 people, has gone into administration after failing to raise extra funding from lenders.

The FTSE 250-listed company announced it was in the process of appointing KPMG as administrators after it earlier suspended trading of its shares.

Connaught said talks with lenders and investors on additional financial support had "failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion".

In a statement the firm continued: "Following extensive discussions with the group's secured lenders, it is now clear that sufficient support would not be extended to the group as a whole to enable it to continue trading as a going concern.

"As a consequence, the board is saddened to announce that it is in the process of appointing partners from KPMG as administrators of Connaught plc and its subsidiary, Connaught Partnerships Limited, which comprises its Social Housing Division."

The company's other main subsidiaries, Connaught Compliance, National Britannia Holdings, Fountains and Connaught Environmental, are not being placed into administration.

    Coming from the North East of England, I feel a great empathy with people who find themselves the casualties of industrial strife.

The Exeter-based repair and maintenance specialist has been in turmoil since it warned in June that Government spending cuts could blow a £200m hole in revenues.


The firm has around 180 multimillion-pound social housing contracts in the UK.

Royal Bank of Scotland recently provided Connaught with a further £15m in an attempt to keep the group going, it has been reported.

Sir Roy Gardner, who recently became chairman of the company, had also attempted to put together a rescue plan with the help of several new directors.

Until their suspension, the company's shares had fallen by more than 90%.

The fall came after the warning in June that it had identified 31 projects where spending will be delayed as a result of austerity measures.

Founder Mark Tincknell left the company earlier this year on health grounds

[Neil Williams]

Get your application into the administrators asp for unpaid money.
They might offer you 10p in the £ at which point it's your choice to take what's on offer or see it out and hope.
Previously when we did commercial work and payment didn't arrive by the next clean (30 day account) the next clean didn't happen. I've dropped some quite lucrative commercial work because payments either got later and later or sparodic.
I don't like writing off £40, the thought of £4,000 would result in me visiting either main office or sites and depositing enough staining products all over the carpets to make me feel better.

[Griffus]

We work for Connaught via one of their contractors.

We were quite busy with them until April with Social Housing projects and had 20 + property's provisionally booked back then but none of them have been called on.

This explains a lot, I have to admit that alarm bells have been ringing since the new Govt got in and announced massive cuts on social housing projects etc.

I just hope that a satisfactory solution can be found for all concerned, especially the firm we sub to.

[Len Gribble]

If feel quite safe my deal is with their environmental side, hope RBS put the money in that side of the business

 

[Phild]

Your right Len, if your business is with the 'Enviromental' side of Connaught aka their cleaning division, it's still trading... at the moment. Every separate company is a legal entity in it's own right but I bet they share the same bankers as the main divisions which have gone 'pop'. If you read the Pink Papers, banks have their own problems at the moment with changes to the cash they have to hold to cover their loans. (which is why all businesses are being screwed to reduce borrowings and / or pay a lot more for them) so they will be dumping Connaught off as soon as their money is guaranteed. Look for a pre-pack / CVA or some other white-feathered way they (the banks) can come out of it with minimal losses.

Personally I watch all these 'big' companies pitching for work at margins which just don't stack up because it squeezes the company I work for but if your're their client would you refuse the'savings' they offer on your cleaning bill? ..... especially if it's multiplied by 10 stores .... 50 stores .... 100.. to Tesco land and beyond etc.? .... even if it only lasts for a year or two.

What can we do as business people? Personally I believe in specialisation, exploring niches and making sure that no customer represents more than 20% of your gross profit. (if anyone wants a true definition of GP e-mail me as it's something I have tried to teach for 40 years!) If you want to 'gamble' on a hunch or new idea, that's fine, as long as you can afford to lose your time and money investment as if it was a chip on a gambling table without affecting your core business.

Sorry if I come over as a Mr Grumpy preaching but when you feel strongly about something and you don't want others to be burnt in their enthusiasm to grow their businesses. You have to stand up and say something.

Best of luck to everyone. In unity their is strength.

phil.dixon@newlifecleaning.com

[wynne jones]

On the bright side, when the owners by the company back cheap and carry on as normal, they will probably offer you more work when it picks up.

[John Kelly]

Doubt that will happen as there market has already dried up and that will only get worse over the next few years. They also run Safecontractor and I have just sent off my annual subscription. Be interesting to see if that continues, think it will.

[wynne jones]

I see they were bought today and the administrators were picky who they sold it to, so there may be hope for all who are owed.

[John Kelly]

Think they have cherry picked the best bits. Doubt they've bought the debt will probably trade under new entity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11257374

[jasonl]

I have not been paid yet , I have been told to expect a letter within 14 days setting out how to claim my money , I have written it off in my head . 

The good thing about carpet cleaning is that this work owes me about £1000 in diesel and other costs , plus my time. If I had supplied good with a lower Gross profit then I would be really worried

[martin19842]

hi there,

i think this is a whole lot deeper that the CUTS, it does appear that there have been some management/commercial issues aswell.

we can all go down the market and sell £10 notes for £8 all day every day, but eventually you will run out of £10 notes to sell.

yes the maraket has tightened, no doubt, but that was always going to happen irrespective of the colour of the government, either this year next year or the year after.

there is work out there, and the properties will still need work doing on them.

i understand the Mears and ROK are circling for some of the contracts, therefore it might be worth a punt to approach them, Morgan Sindall have purchased a chunck of the business i undrstand.

  good luck

regards

martin

[wynne jones]

I tried selling £10 notes for £8 on my estate, but they were still too expensive.

[Matt Lindus]

Keep your eyes on a company called Travis Perkins. Tread with care

Matt

[The Great One]

The pressure on troubled Connaught intensified as a key London council terminated its £7million-a-year contract to maintain 15,000 local authority homes.

Barnet Council is winding up its contract 13 months early, in February next year, in the first cancellation to emerge since Connaught's shock profits warning in June.

It is concerned the loss of confidence means Connaught will be unable to perform its duties properly.

Builders' merchant Travis Perkins revealed it is owed money by Connaught

In an internal memo Barnet Homes said: 'Connaught's ongoing problems with its supply chain are jeopardising our ability to provide an excellent repairs service. This is an absolute priority for us and we cannot allow these issues to continue.'

The contract loss came as builders' merchant Travis Perkins revealed it is owed money by Connaught (down 1.9p at 12.4p).

Travis Perkins finance chief Paul Hampden-Smith told Construction News: 'We have a significant exposure. We are having discussions with Connaught, but these are confidential.'

Concerns about Connaught's future viability have mounted in the past two months as it has issued three profits warnings, its chief executive and finance director have resigned, and its share price has lost 95 per cent of its value.

Basically they were under quoting for contracts even to a negative balance, coupled with suppliers wanting paying upfront.

Unsustainable.

Martin