Buckingham Group Contracting went into administration earlier this month amid fears that suppliers could be owed more than £100m.

Administrator Grant Thornton has confirmed to the Enquirer that Buckingham Plant Hire is a separate business and not part of the administration process.

Latest results for Buckingham Plant Hire show the firm made a pre-tax profit of £2.7m in 2021 from a turnover of £24.3m.

The company’s main customer was Buckingham Group Contracting and it is understood that Buckingham Plant Hire is a creditor owed up to £3m in unpaid hire fees.

The main director of the plant hire company is Paul Wheeler who along with Patricia Wheeler founded Buckingham Group Contracting.

They resigned as directors of the contracting operation in 2021 when it became the biggest contractor to transfer equity to an employee ownership trust.

One supplier said: “We are still reeling from the contracting collapse and are owed a lot of money.

“A lot of Buckingham Plant Hire kit originally out to Buckingham Group Contracting has been hired back on big jobs like HS2 by the main contractors leaving the small suppliers like us further down the chain squeezed out yet again.”