Winding-up of Jarvis puts 1,100 out of work

Most of the railway contractor Jarvis is to be wound up, putting 1,100 people out of work, the administrator Deloitte confirmed yesterday.

Jarvis's accommodation services subsidiary is the only one of its four divisions that is expected to survive. The business is still trading and Deloitte has received a number of expressions of interest from potential buyers. It said: "The administrators are working closely with all stakeholders to continue a normal level of service while they seek a buyer for the business as a going concern."

But Jarvis Rail, the Fastline plant equipment business and the Jarvis plc administrative function will all be closed. "After reviewing the business, and conducting negotiations with key stakeholders, the administrators have concluded that it is not possible to continue to trade the businesses in the absence of further funding," Deloitte said. "It has regrettably, therefore, been necessary to make some 1,100 redundancies across the three companies."

The redundancies affect the company's head office in York and of other sites including Doncaster, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Peterborough. A skeleton staff remains to assist with the winding up of the companies.

Jarvis, which was once Britain's biggest construction group, collapsed into administration at the end of last week after its lenders refused to stump up more capital to keep it in business. The company was hit hard by cutbacks by its main client, Network Rail, which saw 28 per cent of last year's track renewals programme deferred.

Jarvis had tried to broaden its customer base and signed a £55m contract with Chiltern Railways in January. But it was forecasting an operating loss of £5m for the financial year and without a cash injection it was forced to cease trading.