A BUYER has stepped in to rescue a struggling Hampshire building company behind some of the area’s highest-profile developments.

Brymor Group built Southampton’s Horizon Cruise Terminal and had the contract for Southampton Football Club’s new gym.

The Daily Echo revealed a week ago that Brymor Construction Ltd had filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators.

Winchester-based trading conglomerate Portchester Equity has announced it has stepped in to secure the future of the company.

A statement on Friday said: “Portchester Equity is pleased to announce it has today acquired the assets and business of the Brymor Group – including Brymor Construction Limited.

“The Brymor Group is one of the UK’s top 100 independent construction companies, based in Denmead in Hampshire. When cashflow issues arising from the Covid pandemic forced the group to appoint administrators Portchester Equity stepped in to secure its future.

“Portchester Equity, a Hampshire-based trading conglomerate, is owned by Mark Thistlethwayte and also owns Welborne Land Limited, the master developer of the Welborne Garden Village to the north of Fareham.”

Staff and subcontractors were reporting last week that they had been told to leave Brymor sites.

Brymor Construction, based in Denmead, was established in 1987 by chairman Stephen Morton and his wife Jan.

It landed the £27m contract to build the Horizon terminal for Port of Southampton operator ABP, and the £10m job of refurbishing the University of Southampton’s Montefiore Halls of Residence.

Southampton Football Club's state-of-the-art gym is being built at the club's Marchwood training ground.

Other high-profile projects have included a 75-bedroom care home at Barnes Lane in Sarisbury Green and Vespasian, a scheme of 64 homes and commercial space on Poole Quay.

Brymor's last set of published accounts were for the year ending March 31, 2020, when chairman Mr Morton reported a “challenging year which has impacted on both operational and financial performance”.

Turnover that year fell to £66.1m from £73.45m in 2019 and Brymor made a pre-tax loss of £166,077 compared with a £1.13m profit the previous year.