{"id":663349,"date":"2026-06-28T21:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T21:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:45:18","slug":"devonshire-homes-among-five-uk-firms-to-fall-into-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663349\/","title":{"rendered":"Devonshire Homes among five UK firms to fall into administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of UK businesses have collapsed into administration in recent weeks, with a mattress manufacturer, a housebuilder and a party planning firm among those to have fallen into financial difficulty<\/p>\n

17:08, 28 Jun 2026Updated 18:43, 28 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

A string of UK businesses including a local Devon housebuilder<\/a> have officially fallen into administration. This has become an increasingly common occurrence, with thousands of companies meeting this fate this year.<\/p>\n

As well as Devonshire Homes, recent casualties also include a furniture maker with 150 years of trading history and a party planning firm.<\/p>\n

As reported by DevonLive earlier this month, the housebuilder appeared to be seeking a last-ditch rescue attempt<\/a> after launching an effort to hire administrators.<\/p>\n

Devonshire Homes Limited had lodged a Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator, a formal document that essentially gives it 10 business days to find a way to save itself.<\/p>\n

The move meant that it didn\u2019t have to pay creditors for that 10-day period while it sought a solution, which could involve securing external investment or selling assets to raise cash.<\/p>\n

Devonshire Homes, which lists Ilfracombe<\/a>, Bideford<\/a>, Yelland and Bovey Tracey as locations of its current sites in Devon, suffered financial losses in its most recent accounts having secured more than \u00a31.2m in pre-tax profits the prior year.<\/p>\n

Now the construction company, which had been operating for more than three decades, has gone into administration, reports the Mirror<\/a>. Previously trading as Langworthy Construction before rebranding, the firm carried out projects across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.<\/p>\n

From 2008 onwards, it built over 2,000 homes throughout the South West, specialising in traditional rural dwellings with thatched roofs, contemporary apartments and new-build houses, as well as restoring Grade II listed properties.<\/p>\n

As we reported, a major issue was caused by a costly foray into trying to build a type of home \u201coutside its core strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The development in question was already partly built and split into two locations when Devonshire Homes purchased it, but it had a high proportion of timber frame, architect-designed, bespoke houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group had not built such houses before and significantly underestimated the build costs to build the designs,\u201d the accounts for parent company London & Devonshire Trust Limited state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis resulted in the site making a loss and the group considers that the site is a one-off and such sites will never be purchased again where the group does not utilise its own house types.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added that this loss would be \u201cexceptional\u201d and so didn\u2019t intend repeating the error.<\/p>\n

The mistake accounted for just over \u00a31.2 million in so-called exceptional items, weighing on profits at the company, which also has development sites in Wincanton, in Somerset, and Mabe and Penzance, in Cornwall.<\/p>\n

Other firms that have now faced the same fateAirsprung<\/p>\n

The Wiltshire-based mattress and bed maker, which has supplied major retailers for 150 years, has entered administration following challenging trading conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company exhausted all possible options in an attempt to rescue the business, but was ultimately left with no choice but to appoint administrators<\/p>\n

Some 71 staff members were made redundant, while the remaining workforce was retained to support the company’s continuing operations. The business remains operational at present.<\/p>\n

Groupia<\/p>\n

This stag and hen party organiser, which launched in 1999, has gone into administration. The company specialised in coordinating group trips for stag and hen celebrations.<\/p>\n

It has now stopped trading completely, with no new bookings are being accepted.<\/p>\n

Groupia representatives confirmed that trips scheduled to depart on or before August 31 would proceed as planned, with full refunds provided for any bookings arranged from September 1 onwards.<\/p>\n

Ardmore<\/p>\n

In the wake of a major High Court ruling in April, this building contractor has also collapsed into administration.<\/p>\n

Contractor Ardmore’s construction group, founded in 1974, includes Ardmore Hotels and Commercial, Ardmore Major Projects, Ardmore Fitout, Landmark Facades and Ardmore Regeneration.<\/p>\n

The business, which employed around 77 staff, reported that its difficulties stemmed from a partially completed timber-frame development that proved far costlier to finish than anticipated.<\/p>\n

BMB Logistics<\/p>\n

The UK food distribution company has entered administration after just three years of trading.<\/p>\n

Based in Tonbridge, Kent, the business highlighted its facilities specially designed for “temperature-sensitive goods”, according to its website.<\/p>\n

The firm also claimed to be dedicated to “providing a cost-effective, highly efficient service” that enabled them to cater for their customers’ individual requirements. The reasons for appointing administrators remain unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of UK businesses have collapsed into administration in recent weeks, with a mattress manufacturer, a housebuilder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,1294,2195,59,2239,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-663349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-employment","tag-gb","tag-property-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}