Firm carrying out work on Birmingham City's ground goes into administration with 446 jobs lost

446 jobs have been lost from divisions of Buckingham Group that administrators have not been able to sell.

Grant Thornton was appointed administrator of the group, which was set up in 1987, on Tuesday and immediately axed 446 jobs from the building, civils, major projects, sport and leisure and demolition businesses.

Kier had saved 180 jobs with a deal to buy the firm’s £150m-plus turnover rail business, which includes its work for Network Rail and HS2, for £9.6m.

Grant Thornton said 45 people from Buckingham’s head office near Silverstone would remain on the books for “a short period” to help complete the sale of the rail business to Kier.

Buckingham is based at Stowe in Buckinghamshire.

Rob Parker, Jon Roden and Kevin Coates, of Grant Thornton have been appointed as joint administrators,

The business was impacted by recent significant cashflow pressures and subsequent losses. The directors and advisors had tried to deliver a successful refinancing to secure the future of the business.

Joint administrator Mr Parker said: “It is with regret, that despite the best efforts of the directors and the company’s advisers, a sale of the company’s remaining divisions (building, civil engineering, demolition, major projects and sport and leisure) was not possible. As a result 446 employees from these divisions together with some other central roles at the company have been made redundant following the Company entering administration.”

He said the legacy issues faced by Buckingham Group and ongoing losses were simply too great to enable the refinance to succeed in an acceptable timescale.

Buckingham was also to build new stands at Liverpool’s Anfield ground and had a deal to build the new Riverside stand at Fulham’s Craven Cottage stadium.

The Anfield job has already been delayed until October after it was originally supposed to have been finished in time for the start of the new Premier League season last month.

Buckingham’s chairman Mike Kempley said that many other businesses were now engaging with the remaining 500 or so Buckingham employees to help them find jobs.

"After 36 years of uninterrupted trading, this is an extremely sad day for all the exceptionally committed and talented people who have made Buckingham Group Contracting the business it is. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the client and supply chain businesses who have supported the company over many years," he added.

Buckingham has been on the brink of folding since last month when it said it intended to appoint an administrator after racking up deep losses and interim cash deficits on the three major stadium and arena contracts and a substantial earthworks contract in Coventry.

In its last set of accounts, for the year to December 2021, Buckingham’s turnover went up 14 per cent to £665m but the firm made a £10.7m pre-tax loss

Birmingham City bosses were aiming for the lower tier of the Tilton to open by the end of September and for the Kop to be fully open by the end of November.

After Buckingham ceased trading and issued a notice of intention to appoint administrators on August 17, the club said it was holding emergency meetings to understand and assess the impact of the news.