Hawk Plant and five of its subsidiaries have fallen into administration, as Sam Woodward, Alex Williams and Hunter Kelly from EY’s restructuring team are appointed as joint administrators
Woodward, Williams and Kelly of EY’s restructuring team were yesterday (14 January) appointed joint administrators of Hawk Plant (UK) Limited and its subsidiaries Hawk Plant Hire Limited, Hawk Hire Limited, Safety & Training Limited, Hawk Plant Limited, and Hawk Plant Sales Limited.
83 of the Hawk group’s 420 employees have already been made redundant.
The group is one of the largest independent plant hire companies in the UK. Majority owned by Mr & Mrs Michael Hawkins, it made a pre-tax profit of £515,000 on a £93.5m turnover in 2017. It has more than 40 years of experience in the plant hire industry, with its customer base primarily spanning the infrastructure, energy and homebuilding markets.
The Hawkins sold a minority stake in the business in January 2016 to Business Growth Fund for £8m.
Joint administrator Sam Woodward said: “The group’s cashflow had been impacted by a number of historical problematic contracts and a delay in the commencement of anticipated projects.
“Coupled with this, the group’s funding structure, with significant hire purchase and finance lease commitments put pressure on the cashflow at a time that asset utilisation was comparatively low.”
The largest part of the group, Hawk Plant Hire Ltd, made a pre-tax loss of £734,000 in 2017 on turnover of £75.4m.
Subsidiary Enverity Ltd, a ground survey and sight inspection business based in Newark, which employs an additional 20+ staff, remains solvent and unaffected by the administration.
Woodward added: “We will now begin the process of seeking to find a suitable buyer for Hawk, to ensure the best possible outcome for all of the group’s stakeholders. In the meantime, we will seek to minimise the impact on the customer base by keeping assets on hire and maintaining service levels.”
