New accounts made public show that TopHat made a loss of £46.3m and £20.4m in 2023 and 2022- and was never profitable
Modular house-builder TopHat Industries ceased to trade in November 2024, with accounts now filed revealing the extent of the company’s substantial loss.
Filed on 16 January 2025 via Companies House, the Derby-based firm reported losses around £20m annually from 2020 to 2022(£20.4m, £18.0m and £21.3m), before capping their final year with a £46.3m loss before tax (in the year to 31st October 2023).
Parent company TopHat Corporate reported no income at all for the year to October 2023, with all of its costs going towards administrative expenses and interest. Holding company TopHat UK Holdings Limited and subsidiaries appear to still be active.
Around £160m had been sunk into TopHat from various partners
Jordan Rosenhaus set up TopHat in 2016 and the firm was substantially acquired by US bank Goldman Sachs for around £75m in 2017. TopHat was further bolstered by gaining traditional house-builders Persimmon and insurance company Aviva as minority shareholders in 2023, adding over £70m to the company pot. The government also lent £15m to TopHat as part of a drive to explore modular housing as a solution to the housing crisis, but it was not enough.
A new factory in Corby that would have increased production capacity six-fold(from 800 to 4,800 units) was announced in 2022- and scrapped in March 2024. Six months later, the original Derby factory was also shuttered, with the majority of staff made redundant and equipment sent to auction.
The cancelling of the Corby factory created £18.3m of ‘exceptional’ expenditure, which contributed to administrative expenses totalling more than £38m in the year to 31 October 2023.
“As at the end of November 2024, TopHat Industries has completed all remaining projects, effectively ceased to trade, and the vast majority of staff have left the business. This decision follows a thorough review of the company’s financial position and current market conditions, which have rendered it unfeasible to continue operations in the short terms,” Rosenhaus says in the 2023 annual report. “The directors are working closely with relevant stakeholders to manage the closure process, including addressing creditor obligations and distributing any remaining assets.”
The company’s collapse was attributed to a lacklustre market for modular
“It is now apparent that commercial viability is not present within the sector at this time,” said Rosenhaus, when TopHat announced it would cease to trade.
The modular sector’s struggles were attributed to “several factors including a sluggish market for modular housing, the continuing energy crisis, heightened interest rates, rising raw material costs and limited consumer demand.”
This sentiment was echoed by the recently released report’s executive summary, which identified the modular housing sector’s lack of “necessary volumes to sustain business not achieved by TopHat or the competitor base generally”.
Several notable modular specialists have fallen over the last few years, including Go Modular Technologies, Beattie Passive and Caledonia Modular.
The pattern has extended into 2025, with Scottish affordable housing firm Connect Modular appointing administrators earlier this month.
