The ground engineering and civils specialist worked mostly on housing sites, particularly for Barratt and Vistry and is understood to have been working on around 30 sites.

It was placed into administration by RSM Restructuring on Tuesday, although other smaller related companies Athena Haulage, Athena Plant and holding company Athena (UK) remain solvent.

Under managing director Jonathan Hotham and commercial director James Marshall, the firm grew rapidly reaching £38m revenue last year, generating a profit of £490,000.

Set up in 2010, Athena civil engineering was recognised as one of Yorkshire’s fastest-growing 50 companies this year.