Employees at two West Midland companies which have fallen into administration just days before Christmas look set to face an anxious festive period.
Phoenix Fabrications and Accessories in Walsall, which employs 65 people, has called in administrators K. J. Watkin & Co after experiencing difficulties due to the tough economic climate in the construction industry.
The firm, which specialises in the manufacture and distribution of fabrications and accessories to the roofing and cladding industry, operates from an 80,000 sq ft manufacturing base where it has developed fabrications for prestigious projects all over the world, including the new 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium – the second largest football stadium in Europe – which was completed in 2007.
The firm also has a sales office in Cardiff.
Meanwhile, Sutton Coldfield-based Frazer & Tabberer, which supplies steel pipes for the water industry, has called in administrators Irwin & Company.
Frazer & Tabberer was featured at number 23 in the annual Sunday Times league of the UK’s fastest growing private companies in 2007, with its growth attributed in part to the launch of a new jointing method – the F&T E-joint – in 2004 which helped sales grow at a rate of over 100 per cent each year for the next three years.
The company focuses on the UK water company market but had been diversifying to include steel pipelines for transporting brine water and replacement lids for the gas industry.
The company’s managing director Duncan Frazer inherited the company from his father in 1984, buying out co-founder “Tab” Tabberer in 1990.
In an interview in 2008, Mr Frazer spoke of his plans to stock pipelines other than steel as well as creating a yard for the new operation.
Neither of the two administrators for the firms was available to comment.
