The board of contractor Geoffrey Osborne lost their long fight to save the business today calling in administrators.

Insolvency specialists from RSM laid off 100 staff immediately, keeping on a handful to help with talks to sell parts of the business to the trade.

All staff have been paid until the end of April and consultations with people being made redundant have been carried out in recent days.

Today’s announcement follows an 18-month battle to save the firm which saw much of the original business offloaded in an attempt to save the core building business.

During this restructuring programme, Osborne sold its property management division, infrastructure business and offsite manufacturing arm securing the employment of over 850 jobs.

The proceeds of all three sales were reinvested, but failed to save the main business.

The famous industry name was founded in 1966 by civil engineer Geoffrey Osborne and its main shareholders are still the Osborne family.

Chairman Andrew Osborne said: “This is a sad day and one we worked very hard to avoid. I’m sorry for our staff, who are the greatest strength of our business, and thank them for their work over many years.

“Appointing administrators is a last resort after a determined effort to trade through the economic headwinds and deliver for customers. The management team will now work with the administrators on the next steps for the business.”

Damian Webb, Joint Administrator, said: “Regrettably despite the substantive efforts of the Osborne team it has not been possible to rescue the business.