London merchant Hitchcock & King calls in administrators

Builders and timber merchant Hitchcock & King which trades from six branches across south and south west London has appointed Steve Absolom and Nick Holloway from Interpath Advisory as Joint Administrators of Hitchcock & King Enterprises Limited on 31 July 2024.

The company, with branches in Ashford, Burgh Heath, Fulham, Hammermsith, Streatham and Twickenham, has been trading for over 50 years, but faced difficult trading conditions in recent times, including the impact of rising costs and decreasing margins.

Over recent months, The directors therefore took the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators.

The Joint Administrators say that in recent months the directors sought to explore options, including a sale of the business, but a solvent solution was unable to be found.  The business will continue to trade for a short period in order to sell the remaining stock and explore other options for the broader business. Although 37 of the Company’s employees have been retained in the short term to assist the Joint Adminstrators in trading, a further 27 members of staff have been made redundant.

Absolom, who is managing director at Interpath Advisory, said: “Whilst Hitchcock & King will remain open for business in the short term to clear through the stocks of building supplies, there’s no doubt that this is an extremely sad day for this long-running family business and its team of hard-working, loyal employees.

“We will providing support to all those impacted by redundancy, including supporting them in making claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”