The £20m concrete specialist announced the first redundancies on Friday after being placed into the hands of accountants from PwC.

A J Clark operated out of a head office on the outskirts of Kilmarnock and an office set up just over a year ago in Salford.

Alan Brown of PCW has been appointed receiver of the A J Clark and its sister house-building company ATD Developments, which specialised in luxury housing projects worth £500,000 to £1m.

A statement released by the firm said the company had been squeezed by slow-paying customers and a “decrease in the profitability of its building contracts.”

Alan Brown Joint Receiver, Joint Administrator said: “After discussions with the existing lenders, suppliers and customers, the board has taken the difficult decision to place these companies into receivership or administration.

“From our initial review of the businesses, it was clear that it would not be possible to continue to trade, therefore we took the difficult decision to immediately cease trading with the loss of 55 jobs.

“Our priority will now be to work with the remaining employees, suppliers and customers to realise the value in the companies’ assets and contracts.”

A source told the Enquirer: “I heard there was some problems getting paid at the Iggesund biomass power station job in Workington.

“But I am at a loss as to what has gone wrong, we had some very good work prospects.”

Clark is understood to have recently won the groundwork package on Lend Lease’s University of Strathclyde job for a £90m Innovation and Technology Centre.