Stewart Milne Group stopped trading with immediate effect on 8 January 2024. Administrators Adele Macleod, Gavin Park and Matt Smith of Teneo have been appointed.
The Aberdeen-headquartered housebuilder and developer operates development sites across the North East of Scotland, Central Scotland and North West England.
Teneo said the group, comprising Stewart Milne Group Ltd and six of its subsidiary entities – Stewart Milne Homes Central Scotland Ltd, Stewart Milne Homes Central Scotland (Developments) Ltd, Stewart Milne Homes (Arbroath) Ltd, Stewart Milne Homes (Auchterarder) Ltd, Stewart Milne Homes (Kirkston) Ltd and Stewart Milne Homes North West England Ltd – has entered administration.
The group’s active development sites in North West England are held by Stewart Milne Homes North West England (Developments) Ltd, which has a separate funding structure and has not been placed into administration with the other group companies.
Stewart Milne attributed its difficulties to “significant challenges over the last few years, with economic uncertainty due to rising interest rates, increasing cost pressure and an associated reduction in consumer confidence”.
The housebuilder said its directors explored options to secure the future of the business, including running sale processes, most recently from May 2023, but this did not result in a transaction and other options to restructure the group were ultimately not viable.
The joint administrators at Teneo will focus on realising the group’s assets and pursuing an orderly wind-down of the business, retaining 54 employees to assist with managing this process.
However, 217 roles were made redundant following the administrators’ appointment. The administrators are communicating with all employees affected and working with the Redundancy Payments Service to support employees in recovering any statutory entitlements.
Teneo’s MacLeod said: “We continue to assess all the options in respect of the group’s Scottish development sites and encourage any party with an interest to get in touch.”
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