Histon creditors will get 30p in the pound

Histon's total debt runs to £1,297,747, including £819,625 owed to 156 trade creditors. Finnity said Histon has assets worth £573,303 available to unsecured creditors, leaving a deficiency of £724,446.

A further £95,000 has been raised from the sale of certain parts of the business and work in progress to Ely Concrete Products, a subsidiary of Concrete Developments Limited (CDL), in which Aggregate Industries has a majority share. CDL has taken on £150,000 of employee liabilities.

Pre-cast concrete erector Quadro Services, the firm that inadvertently put the final nail in Histon's coffin in February after winning a court case against its troubled Histon Concrete Structures subsidiary, is the creditor owed the most: £184,297 is the amount Histon was due to pay to Quadro after losing the case.

The dispute arose between the two firms from work on the North Wales police headquarters, where Balfour Beatty was the main contractor.

Shortly before the court case Histon suffered the loss of a £400,000 order, which had been placed and then withdrawn. The order would have provided work for the first four months of this year.

A director of one of the top 20 creditors told CJ Histon's 2001 accounts "looked good, so everyone gave them credit". However, the supplier was no longer credit worthy when the 2002 accounts were finalised in 2003. The source said he even warned his rivals not to work for Histon.

In 2001, Histon produced a profit of £41,413 on a turnover of £6.4m. A year later, turnover dropped to £5.1m, producing a loss of £220,120. The situation worsened last year, according to unaudited accounts, with turn-over dropping again to £4.4m and the loss increasing to £302,859.

Histon traded from premises at Wisbech Road, Littleport, Cambridgeshire, rented from its sister company Chainlone at a cost of £100,000 a year.