Demolition shakeout likely in UK, says journalist

Demolition contractors in the United Kingdom, where COVID-19 and accompanying restrictions have hit the economy fiercely, may soon begin filing for reorganization. That is the warning from long-time industry observer and reporter Mark Anthony, publisher of the “This Week in Demolition” e-newsletter.

“Starved of the oxygen of work for three months or more, many demolition firms will now find themselves in a weakened state,” writes Anthony in the June 8 edition of his weekly e-newsletter.

Continues Anthony, “I am aware of at least one big name company that is reportedly attempting to negotiate a ‘pennies in the pound’ survival deal with its creditors. In all likelihood, they will not be alone.”

The slowdown of demolition activity throughout Europe was portrayed in a 74-page report issued in May by the Brussels-based European Demolition Association (EDA). The reported indicated project managers had been forced “to reschedule more than 50 percent of the demolition projects in Europe.”

Anthony says the potential shakeout in the U.K. will have been assisted by COVID-19, but underlying factors had already existed.  Should contracting firms collapse, “The headlines will likely suggest that their demise can be attributed directly – and wholly – to the COVID-19 crisis,” writes Anthony.

He continues, “There is a very real possibility that the first demolition companies to fold will be those that were already displaying signs of metaphorical business obesity or heart disease. Those companies that are lean and fit have the greatest chance of survival.”

Anthony says surviving companies “will be more resistant to any economic disease that grips the industry and the nation in the coming months and years. They will be more agile and hungry, allowing them to bob, weave and pivot to dodge whatever a recession throws at them. The same, sadly, cannot be said for the lumbering companies that are weighed down by inefficiency and that have survived until now on past glories.”