ADH goes under as Mowlem fails to pay

An outstanding payment of £1.8m by Mowlem to Crediton-based subcontractor ADH Services for-ced the company into liquidation last week with the loss of 33 jobs.

The principal partitions and external walling systems contractor had been working with Mowlem on the new Isca College of Media Arts, part of the £95m Exeter schools PFI. ADH sources say it was already owed £600,000 by Mowlem before it was told two weeks ago that it would not be paid any more money.

The rebuttal by Mowlem forced ADH into liquidation resulting in redundancies and about 120 self-employed workers being forced to leave the site as Mowlem replaced ADH with another subcontractor, DMC.

One former employee told CJ: “ADH was relying on Mowlem for payment two weeks ago to prevent it going into liquidation. Mowlem told us that we would not be paid. When we told Mowlem this would cause the company to go under, we were told it was ‘not its problem’.”

Tzanko Vassilev, a plasterer working on the project for ADH, told CJ that he was still waiting for payment from Mowlem. “I have a team of seven workers who are waiting for about £8,000 in payment.”

CJ understands that other subcontractors on the contract, including a glazing company, are believed to be struggling financially because of poor payment from Mowlem.

A Mowlem spokeswoman said: “Mowlem has paid ADH every penny of the money it is entitled to.

ADH’s inability to complete the work for which it was contracted on the Exeter Schools’ project has led to Mowlem incurring additional costs to secure an alternative supplier and paying to have the work finished. These are costs that we will be seeking to recover from ADH through the receiver.

“Mowlem has been able to make alternative plans despite ADH going into receivership and we are confident that the project remains on schedule with no change to the completion date,” the spokeswoman said.