The woes of Australia’s beleaguered construction industry show no signs of ending, with Melbourne-based group Galvin Construction the latest to collapse.
Galvin, which builds apartment projects in Melbourne’s city and inner suburbs, had annual turnover of $40 million in 2008-09 and says on its website that revenue hit $50 million in the year to June 30, 2010.
The company had five major apartment developments under construction at present, including a high-density housing project for the Federal Government and a large apartment complex in Melbourne’s CBD.
All work has now stopped on the company’s projects. Attempts to contact Galvin managing director Steve Sweeney this morning were unsuccessful.
According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Sweeney has told employees that all entitlements will be met.
Administrators Michael Carrafa, Richard Cauchi and Paul Sweeney from insolvency firm SV Partners are now in control of the business.
The administrators declined to comment when contacted this morning. The first meeting of creditors is due to be held on August 23 in Melbourne.
Exactly what caused the collapse of the firm is unclear, although it has been involved in a long-running dispute over a $20 million apartment project in the Victorian city of Geelong called Seabay Apartments.
According to documents from the Victorian Supreme Court, Galvin took action against the developer claiming that certain amounts had not been paid.
In a Supreme Court decision made in May, the court upheld the decision of a building industry adjudicator to award Galvin almost $2 million for payments.
Galvin was established in 1956 by founder Alan Garvin and has worked in the commercial and residential construction disciplines.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
