Yahoo Finance Home builder collapses after 60 years
One of Western Australia’s biggest residential building companies has collapsed, with Collier Homes falling into liquidation after more than 60 years.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission confirmed the company would shut down, with Robert Conry Brauer and Linda Methven Smith, from McGrath Nicol, appointed as liquidators.
Collier Homes was created in 1959 by Raymond McCarthy.
He lived on Collier St in the affluent riverside suburb of Applecross.
In 1969, the business was sold to a national land developer, then in 1981 it was purchased by its senior executive, Ron Smith.
In 1996, Adelaide-based national home builder Home Australia acquired the business.
The brand assets were sold in November 2016 to the present owner, Dario Amara.
In a post on the company’s website before the ASIC announcement, there was a reference to industry challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
“We try hard to please our customers during these challenging times,” the post read.
“The post-Covid stimuli were well-intentioned, however they created massive supply chain shortages, delays and labour constraints — all translating to unpredictable cost escalation.”
Mr Amara is a second-generation builder with more than 40 years of experience.
Collier Homes follows dozens of other builders that have collapsed in the past two years.
A whopping 2349 construction firms have collapsed in the past year.
Of the 8471 business collapses last year, almost 28 per cent were in the building and construction industry, according to the corporate regulator.
Project Coordination (Australia), which had operated for 50 years, went into voluntary administration last month.
The business had offices in Canberra and Wollongong, and did construction work in the ACT and NSW.
Project Coordination had $120m worth of projects on its books and a further $90m ready to start at the time of its demise.
Other recent collapses include Cubitt’s Granny Flats and Home Extensions, which had debts of $6.8m, impacting 120 projects.
Rork Projects (Holdings), Rork Projects (QLD) and Rork Projects – which made up the Rork Group — also recently went into administration.
They have specialised in refurbishment for the past 26 years, with 63 current projects across NSW, the ACT, Victoria and Queensland.
