A timber frame manufacturer in Tyneside has ceased trading in the face of tough local conditions putting an end to ambitious plans for expansion.
Lakeland Timber Framed Homes was a £7m-a-year business making timber frame kits, floor cassettes, wall panels and integrated kitchen and bathroom pods as part of a group that also operated a project management company.
The business ceased trading at the end of last month and appointed insolvency experts to organise a meeting of creditors. A vote to liquidate the company was due to be taken as TTJ went to press.
Last October Lakeland, which was based in Earsdon, secured £260,000 of funding from a specialist debt and mezzanine finance company to build a 33,000ft2 factory in Cramlington. Although Lakeland won business outside the area, including MoD living quarters for the Falkland Islands, sources said local conditions forced its collapse.
Persimmon Homes said it would not start work on any new homes there and Barrett Developments said they would only begin new work if there was clear demand. Bellway, based in Newcastle, posted a 4% fall in interim profits and described the mortgage slowdown as more severe than the early 1990s.
