Hundreds of staff employed by Gloucestershire business Complete Utilities face an uncertain future after one of its major customers announced the business had ‘ceased trading’.
The Maisemore-headquartered company was the lead contractor in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire County Councils’ Fastershire project, helping lay the infrastructure for the broadband project for Gigaclear.
Complete Utilities employs 300 staff and as well as telecoms is also involved in the water, gas and power sectors.
A spokesperson for Gigaclear said: ‘We were notified on Sunday 31 October 2021 that Complete Utilities Ltd, one of our partners working with us to deliver ultrafast broadband across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, were to cease trading with immediate effect.
‘Complete Utilities Ltd have been good partners to us in the region since the start of our activity in 2015 and were still under contract with Gigaclear for existing and a future pipeline of work.
‘We are assessing the impact and are in the process of transferring commitments to other contractors in the region. We have begun communicating to stakeholders and residents.’
There has been no comment from the Maisemore business, its website has been taken down and it is understood that the firm’s staff received an email on Monday 1 November 2021 telling them not to come into work.
It is understood the coronavirus pandemic hit the firm hard, with its last annual report for the year ending July 31 2020, and signed on 29 July 2021 by director Steven John Chaplin, showing operating profits fell from £3,737,092 to £528,543.
By Andrew Merrell
Follow SoGlos on LinkedIn and sign-up to the weekly SoGlos business newsletter for the very latest Gloucestershire business news stories.
