Supplier of the year went under ‘after dispute with Vinci’

The former director of a subcontractor has blamed a dispute with Vinci’s UK building solutions arm for putting his company out of business.

Ex-Marshdale Construction Ltd director Ben Edgar made the claim in a report published on Companies House last Friday (19 April) by the firm’s administrator, insolvency firm Currie Young.

Edgar said his company began to experience problems after Vinci Facilities brought in a consultancy and attempted to “squeeze the existing supply chain to reduce costs”.

The consultancy was engaged after the building solutions arm of Vinci posted losses in summer 2023, according to the report.

Vinci Facilities is the facilities management and building solutions business within Vinci Construction in the UK.

Edgar said that “multiple pay-less notices were received” and “applications ignored”, with the parties unable to reach an agreement through meetings.

Marshdale launched adjudication proceedings, which recovered some of the debts, he said, but Vinci then “prevented all our works from continuing and removed all the company’s security clearance”.

As a result, Edgar said in the report, “we could not continue with the contracted works and… we filed for repudiatory breach of contract and terminated all contracts”.

He added that he called off the legal action early this year in a bid to come to an amicable solution with Vinci, but that the contractor issued what he alleges were “spurious claims of defect which could not be evidenced” against Marshdale.

Edgar said that on 6 February, Marshdale offered a £1.7m settlement for the £2.3m debt it said it was owed, but Vinci advised that it believed it had a £1.06m debt in its favour.

He contacted Currie Young the next day, the report states.

Marshdale changed its name to MDCL Realisations 2024 Limited the following month and formally filed for administration less than two weeks later.

Currie Young’s report stresses that the statement is Edgar’s rather than its own.

When contacted by Construction News, Vinci said it was unable to comment on the allegations contained in the report.

Wolverhampton-based Marshdale Construction Ltd was formed in 2012 and supplied construction, mechanical and electrical, maintenance, civil engineering and other services.

The firm turned over £17m in the year ending 31 December 2022, according to a report from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor.

It started working for Vinci in late 2018 and was named supplier of the year by Vinci Facilities at its 2022 supply chain awards for work carried out on Ministry of Justice projects.

After entering administration, MDCL Realisations 2024 Limited was bought in a pre-pack deal by a company also called Marshdale Construction Ltd, previously named RM Conversion Services, for the sum of £168,168.

The total includes a £68,167 payment for retentions worth £302,965.

The new Marshdale Construction is 25 per cent owned by Edgar.

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