Buckingham Group construction company on brink of collapse

Buckingham Group has been working on the 7,000-seat expansion of Anfield in Liverpool

A major construction company has stopped trading, citing "rapidly escalating contract losses".

Buckingham Group, which is based in Buckinghamshire, has been redeveloping football stadiums including Anfield in Liverpool and Sixfields at Northampton.

It has also been involved in earthworks on the HS2 and East-West Rail lines.

The employee-owned company has filed a notice to appoint administrators, but stressed it was not currently in administration.

Buckingham Group had a turnover of £665m in 2021 and said despite "very strong commercial performance across most of the business", it had suffered "deep losses and interim cash deficits on three major stadium and arena contracts, and a substantial earthworks contract in Coventry".

It blamed a combination of "extreme inflation linked to the Ukraine conflict" and "other challenges in the Sports and Leisure division".

The company said it had been seeking more investment over the last few months, but without success.

It said it would liaise with clients to work on a solution and "secure the best outcome for creditors".

The company had been delivering the 7,000-seat expansion of Anfield, which was anticipated to be completed during the 2023-24 campaign.

Liverpool FC said the situation would not affect the match against Bournemouth on Saturday and that the phased opening of their redeveloped Anfield Road stand could continue.

In a statement, the club added: "We will work with Buckingham Group on the planned phased opening of the remainder of the new stand and will continue to keep supporters updated on arrangements for future games."

Northampton Town FC said it would monitor the situation at Buckingham Group

Northampton Town FC said it was "monitoring the situation" as Buckingham Group was contracted to build the new East Stand, and it was "awaiting an updated quotation".

Chairman Kelvin Thomas said: "As a club we have no financial risk or commitments and we have had conversations with other contractors anyway, to make sure that we had some comparative figures and back-up plans."

He added: "Buckingham's have been good to the football club and we hope they can work through this."