EXETER: The fallout from the administration of Rok continued yesterday as administrators closed the company's Scottish plumbing, heating and electrical (PHE) division, leading to a further 268 job losses on top of the 700 announced on Wednesday.
The losses mean that more than a quarter of the building services company's 3,800 staff have now lost their jobs, and come after administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers said that a possible purchase of the division had fallen through. Most of the losses today – 130 – came in Inverness, with 74 jobs lost in Dundee, 28 in Elgin, 19 in Thurso and 17 in Fort William.
Alan Brown, director of business recovery services at PwC in Scotland, said: "We were in discussions with an interested buyer for the remainder of the PHE business in Scotland... Unfortunately last night, it became apparent that this would not come to fruition."
Administrators are hoping to salvage what they can of Rok's business through selling its contracts to the more than 100 parties who have expressed an interest.
The PHE division was the area of the business that originally caused problems for the construction company. Rok revealed in April that it had found PHE to be trading below expectations. At one stage the problems were put down to accounting issues, but it later became clear that a fall-off in housing sub-contracting work was to blame.
Rok was put into administration on Monday after trading in September fell 30% below management's expectations. The company is thought to have as many as 10 000 trade creditors owed more than £100m.
