Staff laid off as Hennelly's sinks into administration

Controversial labour supplier Hennelly's which was recently kicked off a flagship job by Balfour Beatty has gone into administration, CJ can reveal.

Insolvency specialists were called into the firm's Middlesex head office on 3 July and more than 80 employees have already been made redundant.

A spokesman for administrator Hurst Morrison Thomson said: "Hennelly's Ltd is the trading entity of the whole operation and we had to make 80% of the firm's 110 employees redundant on the day we were appointed. There is still one outstanding contract to be completed, then we will run down the company."

Hennelly's was recently embroiled in a number of pay disputes after cheques for its workers in London and the South East bounced.

The firm's 40-strong workforce at Balfour Beatty's northern ticket hall office project at King's Cross Station in London walked off the job in May in protest over outstanding wages.

The dispute prompted furious calls from the construction unions for Balfour to remove Hennelly's from its list of preferred suppliers.

A Balfour Beatty spokeswoman said: "We have heard that Hennelly's is in administration, but prior to that we were executing a managed exit of their outstanding subcontract package at the northern ticket hall project at King's Cross."

Hurst Morrison Thomson will now go through Hennelly's books to assess the level of trade debt owed to creditors and will contact them in the next 14 days. The spokesman said: "We have basically assumed control of the company after instructions from the financiers that acted when Hennelly's simply ran out of money."

Unions were up in arms over the King's Cross dispute because of Hennelly's history of wage rows and subsidiary companies going into administration.

UCATT London regional secretary Jerry Swain said: "Companies that operate like Hennelly's are no loss to the industry.

"I wrote to Balfour Beatty chief executive Ian Tyler expressing my concerns about such a major company employing subcontractors that behave in this way and I'm glad that they have taken note."

Hennelly's has had a colourful reputation since its formation in 1975 by Sean Hennelly.

He was banned from running a company for eight years in 1998 after amassing debts of nearly £10m through a string of failed construction businesses.

The firm has been involved in a number of "phoenix" buy-outs, including subsidiary company Roe Roads, which went bust in 1998 owing £1m.

Within weeks Hennelly had taken over the old Roe Roads contracts from existing client National Grid via a company called Hennelly Utilities, which was registered nine months before Roe Roads went under.

Swain said: "Lets hope this is the last we've heard of them, but with their history I wouldn't bet on it."