HARLOW-based contractor Oakmont Construction has stopped work on its sites reports Construction Enquirer.

The Enquirer understands Oakmont is now working with debt and restructuring specialist FRP Advisory.

Operatives and subcontractors turning-up for work earlier this week were confronted with locked gates at jobs including the £7m Gateway, Bar Hill warehouse job for Legal & General and developer Wrenbridge.

Calls to Oakmont’s head office on River Way in Harlow are going straight to voicemail while emails are going unanswered.

Oakmont has been trading since 2004 and latest results filed at Companies House show that for the year to December 31 2020 the company made a pre-tax loss of £1.4m from a turnover of £18m.

Those results were heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with Oakmont making a £1.9m profit from a turnover of £40m the previous year.

In 2020 Oakmont sold its entire share capital to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) making the employees effective owners of the business.

At the time of the EOT Oakmont had 37 employees.

The EOT was due to pay £5.3m for the company shares of which £1.4m had been paid by the end of 2020.