The dry lining, ceiling and specialist fit out contractor ceased trading on Monday.

Most of the 140 staff have been made redundant with a small number retained to assist the joint administrators for a short period.

Astins Limited, based in Crawley, also worked with over 600 self-employed sub-contractors. The business had been trading for 24 years and recently reported turnover in excess of £50m

Andrew Duncan, Director at Leonard Curtis, said: “The company has suffered recently as a result of a number of substantial bad debts and claims received from clients in respect of historic contracts, which have made it impossible for the business to continue to trade.

“Our focus is now on ensuring that the company’s employees receive their claim entitlements from the Redundancy Payments Service as soon as possible and making sure that any value held in the company’s current contracts and other assets is preserved for the benefit of creditors.”