Aggies firm hits the rocks

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An East Midlands rock crushing contractor has gone into administration because its workload has dried up.

Newark-based Dickiesheba called in the administrators on Wednesday after seeing turnover nosedive from £5 million earlier this year to under half that amount.

The firm works for some of the biggest aggregates firms including Cemex, Aggregate Industries and Tarmac.

But administrator Chris Farrington, a partner at Deloitte in Nottingham, said: "They've been hit by a lack of demand caused by the downturn in the construction industry."

The company, which did employ 25 people and also has an office in Stirling, now has 10 staff on its payroll.

Mr Farrington said the business owed "hundreds of thousands" to creditors rather than seven figures and added that he was looking to sell the business as a going concern: "They've got top quality kit and it's all pretty new."

Dickiesheba is still on site at three Cemex quarries in Peebles, in the Scottish Borders, and up in north Lanarkshire as well as a site south of the border in Rugeley, Warwickshire.