Full Fibre Broadband Builders Telec Networks Calls in Administrators UPDATE
Grimsby-based civil engineering firm Telec Networks, which has been used by full fibre (FTTP) operators like CityFibre and County Broadband to help construct their networks across various parts of England (e.g. Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Norfolk etc.), has reportedly notified that it intends to appoint an administrator.
According to a report on The Business Desk, the street works firm is now said to be on the “brink of collapse” and has posted a Notice of Appointment to appoint an administrator in the near future. At the time of writing, this notice doesn’t yet show up on The Gazette (such things usually follow a little later), although it is noted that the company posted a petition to wind up the company in March 2023, but that was dismissed in June 2023.
The company’s latest accounts to March 2022 (published only a few months ago) revealed that they had a turnover of £24.223m and made a profit of £514,172, which is good except for the fact that this profit level was down sharply from the £2.504m they took home in the prior year. Back then, the contractor had a workforce of just 54. Liabilities had also grown to £5.351m (up from £5.018m).
Advertisement
At this time, it’s not clear if the administration was prompted by the likely loss of CityFibre’s build contract in Norwich – as covered on these pages over a week ago (here), or if they were already heading in that direction before. But the declining profit suggests that the business might have been going in the wrong direction before the events of 2023. Last year also saw Telec take the blame for “shoddy” street works in Norwich (here).
We did try to email Telec when researching for the previous CityFibre story, but received no reply, and this latest development may help to explain why (companies often go into silent mode around an administration). Companies typically go into administration if they can’t pay their debts. The process protects the company from legal action by creditors, prevents it from being wound-up immediately and may mean they don’t have to pay all their debts, but if the business cannot be saved then it can still be wound-up.
In any case the move will inevitably impact Telec’s existing contracts with CityFibre and others, which confirms the expectation of a long delay in Norwich as a new contractor may now have to be found and that sort of process for a big build typically takes around a year (sometimes longer, sometimes less).
UPDATE 30th August 2023
Advertisement
The Gazette’s individual company pages don’t seem to be working today, but we did manage to pull out the official administration notice (here), which was published on 23rd August. This confirms that Telec has appointed Duncan Beat (IP No. 8161) and Andrew Watling (IP No. 15910), both of Quantuma Advisory Limited.
According to Quantuma’s Andrew Watling, Telec ceased trading and entered Administration due to a combination of challenging circumstances, such as the generally “difficult trading climate“, “delays in starting contracts” and “late payment by clients” that resulted in a squeeze on cash.
Apparently, all of the company’s staff transferred to a new employer prior to the firm entering administration.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Vodafone UK Still Tackling Issue of 200Mbps FTTP Speed Caps
FibreSpeed Network in North Wales Plans for Post 2025 Future »
This is a good news story . One less company of cowboy civil engineers not wrecking rural villages ! Adios
How can this be a good news story? People have jobs there and bills to pay, no company going into administration is a good news story. By the context of your comment alone I can only presume you work for a real cowboy company with that mindset.
Let’s hope you are never in this position, because with that attitude I would guess you would be the first out of the door.
You seem nice
Just a villager sick of every tom dick and harry sticking in broadband . churning up the streets
Agree with other about how can it be a good thing, people jobs lost.
It is possible that they will be bought out of administration and absorbed into another company
Depends on the quality of the contracts they have on the books. When Carillon collapsed a few years ago they asked why other contractors weren’t jumping in to take over the contracts the answer was that we could write our own loss making contracts thank you very much.
That’s the aim of administration, to keep it as a going concern. If it was just about selling assets it would be liquidators.
It’s very possible they will end up getting purchased by some of the current management team, possibly as a prepack administration (Administrator is appointed, and immediately sells to new company, writing off debts). The branding could be very similar maybe Telnec Networks Limited or Telnec Engineering limited instead of Telnec limited
Another one driven out of business.
The regulator and government should be looking more closely at Cityfibre and their engagement with Contractors.
Cityfibre were the biggest share holder/owners of contractors MakeHappen who were also working on behalf of Cityfibre, but even they went bust.
Makes you wonder…
MakeHappen had been doing lots of work for Openreach round here, yet no-one mentioned them, I guess it doesn’t fit the agenda of the CityFibre bashers?
They were also doing work for other altnets some of which had supplied loans to get the teams stood up, yet again no-one mentioned that.
When MakeHappen went bust they were just working on one city for CityFibre I think most of the work was for others, the ownership part came from their acquisition of Fibrenation.
@Anon.
Makehappen’s demise was reported and commented on here.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/07/trouble-for-uk-full-fibre-builds-as-makehappen-enters-administration.html
They really aren’t. Check out Hague telecoms services the man who owns that also owns Telec, who the md of Telec Networks in Suffolk was and who is now a director at Hague Telecom services from the 2nd of august.
Very sad, City Fibre have destroyed the contracting supply chain, taken out circa 6+ companies in the last 3 years.
Mesch and the board need investigating by Government.
I am hearing rumours of all those companies who were destroyed that a class action law suit could be taken against City Fibre.
Here’s hoping the CF board get sacked, or made redundant on saturatory packages.
There is more intelligence and knowledge in an cat and there is within that board of directors.
Just look at all the shenanigans with CF as a shareholder in Makehappen.
Badly designed network and today at auction only worth £1
RIP Telec and another one goes
Ultimately it will be down to CityFibre’s investors as owners of the business to decide if the current management remains in place.
Have a day off, their work was clearly poor and they haven’t tendered for contracts correctly.
If you can’t make money contracting off Cityfibre you are doing it wrong, end of.
“Class action”?? This is business-to-business we’re talking about here.
Nobody forced any company to sign a contract with Cityfibre. If they accepted a contract on terms they couldn’t make a profit on, whose fault was that?
Class Action….in the UK? No such thing.
Maybe you would like look up GLO’s instead before posting incorrect information, however, as NE555 points out, this is all about B2B contracts.
With the rollout having passed the 50% market and current high cost of finance there is bound to be a scaling back. Take up of FTTP is also probably below anticipated levels
Take up of FTTP is not going as well as companies thought it would I don;t think even if some think it is. If it was, then I would certainly be seeing more Openreach and ZZoomm vans going around the city. People I know that live in other parts of the country say the same thing.
Some people on here will tell you that FTTP is doing fine.
The main problem that people have a pretty decent FTTC speed will stay with it if all they do is stream and maybe browse the net as it does them .
That is why Openreach is forcing people across to FTTP when a certain percentage of a city/town is laid with fibre.
I understand that Fibre is the future, but when people have to be forced to change or to use a product, then there is something wrong.
Pod-Trak Networks made good existing works in Norwich but haven’t continued the build. Gutted. My street was weeks away from getting CityFibre. All my hopes of escaping Vermin Media are now firmly pinned on Upp.
“Vermin Media” 🙂
A lot of these problems with contractors is just down to a simple lack of experience. The guy from the Openreach contractor who did my install had only a few months earlier been working in the Honda factory at Swindon. Apparently they get about a weeks training and get thrown out on the road! In the altnet gold rush there would no way be enough experienced contractors and crews ready to go. I expect the contractors have found have found the going on the ground a lot tougher than expected (or quoted for) so they start trying to cut corners. This would be borne out by the number of fines issued for poor streetworks. In my experience when dollar signs get flashed in front of managers eyes judgement tends to be somewhat impared.
Telec were rolling out Cityfibre in Chester until a year ago, starting in May 2021. Then Cityfibre sacked them, supposedly due to problems with the works. Now another lot have restarted it. Who knows when it will be finished?
Telec may be gone but it lives on in Hague Telecom services. The MD of Telec is now director of HTS from the 2nd of this month.
Have a wild guess at what it all is about.