Lloyds Bank has called in insolvency specialist RSM as administrator for the 250-employee housing maintenance specialist Breyer.

The decision to call time on the Essex contractor comes after subcontractor payment problems came to a head with three winding up petitions issued against £80m turnover Breyer in the last few weeks.

Breyer Group was originally founded as an Asphalt Roofing Contractor by Fred Breyer in 1956, remaining in family ownership under chairman Timothy Breyer.

Cardo group is understood to be in exclusive talks to buy the assets and contracts of the roofing business.

If successfully concluded a deal could save over 100 jobs and secure the fate of several big roofing contracts.

It would also boost the growth of the private equity-backed Welsh maintenance group Cardo, making a deal its sixth acquisition since it was also formed two years ago from social housing contractor LCB Group to support social housing providers with their maintenance, compliance, retrofit and decarbonisation needs.