More than 150 staff have been laid off at mechanical and electrical specialist J S Wright and its sister company Wright Maintenance after both businesses were placed into administration.

Administrators from FRP Advisory have taken control of the former employee-owned West Midlands firm, which traces its history back to 1890.

Raj Mittal, partner at FRP Advisory, said the companies entered into administration after recent challenging operating conditions, most notably a downturn in demand, along with delayed projects and payments, which left it facing cash flow pressure.

The firm worked on many high rise residential projects building a strong portfolio of jobs particularly in London.

In 2017, JSW saw a shift in ownership following the retirement of the previous owners as five directors led a management buyout.

The business then switched to employee ownership in October 2021 with the previous managing director Marcus Aniol leaving to become the head of the employee ownership trust.

Subsequent project and payment delays impacted liquidity with cash falling from £9.9m in 2021 to just £850,000 in last published results for April 2023.

Pre-tax profit for the year fell to just £0.5m from £3.1m in 2022, with revenue also sliding by around 10% to £46m.

To give the business more headroom former shareholders provided a £1.35m loan and the firm’s bank, which helped fund the change in ownership, agreed to a loan repayments holiday until May 2025.

Mittal said “The company was a trusted contractor in the sector for many decades.

“Unfortunately, due to challenging trading conditions the business has been unable to meet its financial obligations and has ceased operations.

“Our focus now is on supporting the affected employees to file claims with the redundancy payments service and realising the best possible outcomes for creditors.”