HE Simm collapse leaves £18m debt trail

Administrator Forvis Mazars has advised provider and subcontractors there may be little prospect of seeing any return on the money they’re owed.

A report from directors exhibits that the collapse left the agency’s 127 workers owed round £214,000 in unpaid wages and entitlements.

The long-established family-rrun contractor hit critical hassle on a sequence of fixed-price London jobs, together with the Riu Lodge in Victoria and Ebury Bridge flats.

What started as high-profile schemes secured within the bounce again after the Covid pandemic quickly become loss-makers as hovering materials prices, provide chain issues, labour shortages and undertaking delays mixed to hammer margins.

Directors stated the southern division’s initiatives marked the beginning of the corporate’s monetary collapse, diverting administration focus and draining money from the broader enterprise.

By August 2023, a number of London schemes have been underneath mounting stress, prompting a full overview that uncovered £20m of losses throughout six initiatives.

Regardless of long-standing consumer relationships and shareholder assist totalling £17m — together with a £9.9m fairness injection in June 2025 — the agency was hit by the withdrawal of credit score insurance coverage, undertaking cancellations and the collapse of a key consumer.

An tried £5m fundraise in early 2025 briefly stabilised the corporate, however by summer season it had run out of money with suppliers refusing to ship supplies forcing HE Simm into administration in early September 2025.