Suffolk-based demolition contractor calls it a day.
McFletch Demolition is to cease trading in a controlled closure of the well-established and respected company.
Speaking exclusively to DemolitionNews, founder Chris McFletch says he has elected to retire and close the company. That decision is not connected to the COVID-19 crisis or the current economic climate, he says.
“About six months ago, my daughter asked me why I was still getting up at 4.00 am in the morning to drive 200 miles to work,” he says. “She said that she didn’t want to receive a phone call to tell her I had dropped dead in a digger.”
The decision to close the NFDC member business is also a reflection of McFletch’s disenchantment with the industry as a whole.
“We made a conscious decision not to work with contractors several years ago. They make life too difficult and they don’t pay their bills,” he says. “Now, we seem to spend more time on training and complying with some new piece of legislation than we do on actual demolition work. I am not interested in turnover. I am interested in profit but all these obstacles have just made it increasingly hard to realise that.”
McFletch’s offices, yard, workshops and its entire fleet of equipment and vehicles is scheduled to go under the hammer at the end of this month. Details of that sale can be found here. Some staff left some six weeks ago, followed by more just four weeks ago ahead of the final closure.
McFletch becomes the second demolition contractor to elect to walk away in just over six months, following a similar decision at Scotland’s Forth Demolition back in March this year.
