{"id":616739,"date":"2023-03-11T08:58:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T14:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/11\/tolent-founder-reflects-on-tragic-collapse-of-200m-contractor\/"},"modified":"2023-03-11T08:58:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T14:58:34","slug":"tolent-founder-reflects-on-tragic-collapse-of-200m-contractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/11\/tolent-founder-reflects-on-tragic-collapse-of-200m-contractor\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolent founder reflects on \u2018tragic\u2019 collapse of \u00a3200m contractor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Tolent founder John Wood reflects on the company\u2019s highs and lows, and explains why his sons have taken on the failed firm\u2019s Teesside operations<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When contractors go bust, a newly appointed administrator makes the same announcement: it was COVID-19 that did it. And material prices inflation. Supply chain issues. Labour shortages. Access to credit. Possibly Brexit, too.<\/p>\n

The administrators for Tolent \u2013 a Gateshead-based contractor with a \u00a3200m turnover that collapsed last month \u2013 followed the same script. But they also blamed the weather \u2013 pointing out that Tolent failed \u201cafter the annual Christmas shutdowns and a cold December\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, all these factors do push companies towards insolvency. But they are issues that have affected everyone. The specific problem suffered by Tolent \u2013 as is often the case, and as the administrators did eventually allude to \u2013 was a \u201csignificantly loss-making job\u201d.<\/p>\n

The job was Milburngate, an \u00a385.5m mixed-use campus in Durham that Tolent almost completed before going under. Unfortunately, the firm lost \u00a313m while it was working on it, according to founder John Wood.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tragic. Tragic. A lot of great people worked with me to build that company up. It\u2019s sad, sad, sad to see what has happened. They have just had some horrendous bad jobs\u201d<\/p>\n

John Wood, Tolent founder<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While Wood has not worked at the company since standing down as its chair in 2019, he still knows the ins and outs of the business from the countless friends and colleagues he made during decades of service at the firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss on that!\u201d he exclaimed in an exclusive interview with Construction News<\/i>. \u201c\u00a313m on an \u00a385m job! Whether it was due to the COVID situation or a mispriced lump sum, I don\u2019t know. They just got that wildly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood added the company lost around \u00a38m from its London division after the director Norman Campbell (\u201ca really good guy\u201d) died from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tragic. Tragic. A lot of great people worked with me to build that company up. It\u2019s sad, sad, sad to see what has happened. They have just had some horrendous bad jobs,\u201d said Wood.<\/p>\n

Promising start<\/span><\/h3>\n

Wood set up Tolent in 1983. He was a trained civil engineer and had previously worked as a contracts manager for Balfour Beatty in the North East. Tolent\u2019s first project was a concrete access road, while many of its following jobs were in shipyards around the Tyne.<\/p>\n

In its first year the company turned over \u00a3300,000 and employed six people: two joiners and four general builders. But its revenue grew rapidly \u2013 doubling year-on-year \u2013 and by 1987 it was working on the Japanese embassy in Piccadilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no presence in London so we bought a house, knocked it into a budget hotel, and used to bring the lads on a trip bus,\u201d Wood recalled. \u201cWe\u2019d take them down Sunday teatime, work for 12 days and bring them back. We had a good canteen on the site to make sure they were well fed. It was a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its apex \u2013 in the years before the global financial crisis of 2008 \u2013 Tolent had offices in Newcastle, Teesside, Leeds, Manchester and London. It built Newcastle City Library and Hadrian\u2019s Tower, the tallest building in the city. It also fitted out 120 Fleet Street for Goldman Sachs, beat Balfour Beatty to build Durham County Cricket Club\u2019s ground in Chester-le-Street and constructed an enormous new headquarters for Sage Group in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Remembering the pre-qualification interview for the Sage HQ, Wood said: \u201cIt was [Sir Robert] McAlpine, Amec \u2013 still in their pomp \u2013 and Tolent. Manchester United, Chelsea and Hartlepool. And Hartlepool won.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the company officially went under on 13 February, 313 staff were made redundant on the spot. Wood said the redundancy of staff is especially sad given the business had \u201cvery low churn\u201d, with \u201ca lot of people that had been there for 30 years, which is unusual for tradesmen\u201d.<\/p>\n

And naturally, the ripples from Tolent\u2019s collapse have spread far and wide. The business was working on a number of projects around the North East, including a construction academy and a flagship regeneration scheme for Sunderland City Council \u2013 both projects backed by levelling-up funds from central government.<\/p>\n

Then there are the subcontractors. Durham-based bricklaying business High Rise Brickwork Ltd said on LinkedIn that it would be \u201ctaking a hit due to the circumstances and working on four projects for Tolent Living\u201d.<\/p>\n

James Winter, director at Durham-based heating and plumbing contractor JD Winter, meanwhile, said on the same platform that his firm \u201cwill be facing a huge financial loss\u201d from the administration of Tolent Living, adding: \u201cI hope all other subbies involved will get through this unscathed.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the ashes<\/span><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not all bad news though \u2013 several jobs have since been saved by other firms, with Wood having a hand in one such operation.<\/p>\n

Before Tolent\u2019s collapse, Wood had been working with Brims Construction on a takeover bid for Tolent\u2019s Teesside operation. Brims, a 16-year-old, \u00a338m-revenue company with 90 staff, is run by three former Tolent staff \u2013 two of whom are Wood\u2019s sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that Tolent was having a tough time and were looking to sell bits,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I knew that the Teesside operation was always steady \u2013 it was always about mid-\u00a320m turnover and [regional director] Ricky [Halton] always made a steady return.\u201d<\/p>\n

When news of the collapse came through, Wood and the Brims directors realised they did not have to buy Tolent\u2019s Teesside operation \u2013 instead they headed to Teesside to effectively seize the business. They started by asking the former Tolent workers in Teesside if they were up for it. And then, one by one, they told clients they could do the same job for the same money with the same people.<\/p>\n

These pitches were successful, so Halton, who Wood had hired out of university decades earlier, was reappointed as director for Brims\u2019 new Teesside business. Brims is also buying Tolent\u2019s Teesside office building, with all its fixture and fittings, from the administrators for \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n

A further 33 jobs have also been saved by Re:Gen Group, which specialises in refurbishing social housing across the North East of England. The group has set up a new subsidiary, Re:Gen Solutions, which will employ former Tolent staff to carry out asbestos\u00a0 <\/span>work.<\/p>\n

Not everyone has been so lucky, though. Wood said his former secretary of 30 years \u2013 a \u201cgem\u201d of an employee \u2013 was still searching for a new job. \u201cIt really is the end of an era,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tragic\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Will Ing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolent founder John Wood reflects on the company\u2019s highs and lows, and explains why his sons have taken on the failed firm\u2019s Teesside operations When contractors go bust, a newly appointed administrator makes the same announcement: it was COVID-19 that did it. And material prices inflation. Supply chain issues. Labour shortages. Access to credit. Possibly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":616740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1479,119130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-founder","category-tolent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}