Wolverhampton construction firm AMG collapses into administration after 122 years
A 122-year-old construction company in Wolverhampton is going into administration.
Arthur M Griffiths informed clients and ceased trading on Friday, the same day an application to appoint an administrator was filed.
The business, which was led by managing director Richard Green, has also deleted its website and locked its Thomas Street premises.
The Birmingham office of business rescue and recovery firm Leonard Curtis is handling the administration of the firm which is believed to have been hit by rising prices for steel and other construction materials.
Arthur M Griffiths had revenue of £30.1 million for its last financial year to March 2020 when it made a £305,000 profit.
The company employed around 60 at that time, but many staff are believed to have left since then.
It went through a management buyout in 2015, and in 2017 won the growth and innovation category at the Express & Star Business Awards.
The company was involved in work in both the private and public sectors, building many schools and hospitals.
One of the buildings that Arthur M Griffiths was responsible for was the former headquarters of Carillion, Carillion House in Salop Street, Wolverhampton. It was originally Staffordshire House and was built as headquarters for the former Staffordshire Building Society in 1977.
From 2019 it constructed the new £5 million Severn Hospice building at Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, which was completed in January this year.
The firm was started in 1899 by Arthur M Griffiths, a builder working from a small workshop in Church Lane, Wolverhampton.
It grew to be responsible for many major landmark buildings across the Black Country and wider region.
The company moved to Thomas Street in 1904 and by the 1930s was undertaking large local authority contracts to build council houses in Wolverhampton, Coseley, Stourbridge, Wednesfield and the surrounding areas
During the Second World War it was engaged on munitions factory maintenance as well as MoD government work.
The company had a broad range of clients with its core sectors being education, industrial, commercial, retail, healthcare, housing, leisure and heritage.
Its head office was closed or operated with a skeleton staff at the start of the coronavirus crisis in March last year but its building sites stayed open.
It had a full order book at the start of its 2020-2021 financial year and was not in the position of requiring to secure new work in the early months of the pandemic.
During the final quarter of 2019-2020 it had started to see projects deferred where clients were seeking reassurance about the economic conditions facing the country and construction market due to Brexit.
