An investigation has begun into why South West construction firm Henry W Pollard and Sons Ltd collapsed leaving buildings unfinished.
The 161-year-old family-run firm stopped operations without warning in June 2021 leaving buildings, such as Plymouth’s Teesra House apartment block, incomplete.
A meeting of creditors for the business, held at Exeter’s Sandy Park rugby stadium, has now appointed joint liquidators. And one of the first jobs Luke Venner and Jack Callow, of accountancy and business consultancy Bishop Fleming LLP, will be doing as joint liquidators will be to find out what went wrong at Pollard and contact people owed money.
Pollard, headquartered in Bridgwater but with a key regional office in Plymouth, ceased trading and entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation on July 8, 2021. Joint liquidators were appointed on July 21.
Mr Venner, restructuring director at Bishop Fleming, said: “As joint liquidator, I will be realising the assets of the company in the interests of creditors, and investigating the financial position of the company and the reasons for its failure. I will be contacting all known creditors with further information shortly.”
A creditors' voluntary liquidation is an insolvency process which enables directors to formally close an insolvent company voluntarily. It is often chosen by directors as a means of taking control in the face of continued creditor pressure and the imminence of a winding up petition.
Documents filed at Companies House revealed Pollard had outstanding loans and mortgages from Lloyds Bank. But the firm was in profit before the coronavirus pandemic and had a healthy turnover, but the administration of an important client in 2019 had left it £715,000 out of pocket.
Pollard has been involved in multi-million pound building projects throughout the West Country. It has been constructing the £13m, eight-storey Teesra House apartment block at Mount Wise, in Plymouth, close to where it also built the Leeward House luxury flats complex. Work stopped at the new building in June. It is still covered in scaffolding and a sign on fencing reads “this site is now closed”.
Pollard, which opened its Plymouth office in the Millbay Cargo building in 2015, recently completed Kingsditch Industrial Units in Cheltenham, and was also working on Weston Mews townhouses in Bath, and Alexander House care home in Exeter.
It employed about 50 people and its most recent results revealed turnover of £24m, up 20%, in 2020 and a profit of £170,888. That was before the Covid pandemic, although accounts released in January 2021 said the firm has been able to maintain work at all its sites and was tendering for £40m of contracts.
Meanwhile, at the former Royal Navy site in Mount Wise, Plymouth, where Pollard was constructing the 73-apartment Teesra House, developers have been left to decide what to do now. The building is in the latter stages of development and a new company will have to be found to complete the work.
Mount Wise (Devon) Ltd has been developing the former naval base, which is also home to Plymouth Cricket Club, and has invested more than £35m into the phased development so far.
A spokesman for Mount Wise said the building itself is in the final stages of construction and the company is assessing the situation and working towards putting new arrangements in place to minimise any delay and we aim to recommence works.
Pollard has also been responsible for many other prominent South West buildings, including the 130-bed student accommodation development at St Anne’s in Exeter; a food retail park at Alphington Road, Exeter; a new Children’s and Community Centre in Sidmouth; redevelopment of Mount Stuart Hospital, in Torquay; the refurbishment of the Grade II listed Exeter Community Centre and the redevelopment of Woodford and Holy Cross Primary schools in Plymouth.
Inquiries about the Pollard liquidation should be directed to Bishop Fleming in the first instance, either by email to restructuring@bishopfleming.co.uk, or by phone on 01392 448800.
