MORE than 180 staff have been made redundant after a Barrhead-based construction firm closed its doors. 

Allma Construction and Central Plant Limited, which is based on Muriel Street in the town, has confirmed that they have fallen into administration following a "sharp downturn" in recent activity in the housebuilding sector.

The local firm was founded in 1991 and is an established supplier of specialist groundwork services to leading housebuilders.

According to the appointed administrators, Stuart Robb and Michelle Elliot of FRP Advisory, the company had a combined turnover of £25million and employed 188 staff - 184 for Allma and four for Central Plant.

However, they revealed that the building firm had been struggling with a downturn in activity along with a rise in prices of raw materials and delays to the commencement of work, which has caused unstainable financial and cash flow pressures.

Due to this, the company has ceased trading and assets from it will be sold, while 181 staff have lost their jobs.

Administrator Stuart Robb said: “Allma Construction is a long-established and highly regarded supplier of specialist groundworks services to many of the leading housebuilders.

“Unfortunately, the business has been severely affected by a downturn in the homebuilding markets and rising labour and material costs, and despite the best efforts of the directors in exploring other options administration was the only option.

“We will now focus on marketing the assets for sale and on providing every possible support to the staff for claims to the Redundancy Payments Office and accessing support agencies such as PACE.”

Have you been affected by this? Get in touch: ben.waddell@newsquest.co.uk