A BUSINESS recovery company has saved 30 jobs at a closure-threatened Norfolk civil engineering firm.

Ideal Corporate Solutions (ICS), based in Chorley New Road, Bolton, came to the rescue of Blair Plant & Civil Engineers Ltd, in North Walsham, when it was put into administration last month.

The company has now been sold to a new business operation set-up by the old management team.

The East Anglian company, which was founded two-and-a-half years ago, employs 30 staff and has a turnover of £2.5 million. Earlier this year, Blair Plant experienced cashflow problems after difficulties collecting payment on a large contract.

Ideal Corporate Solutions was called in by the directors of Blair Plant when one of its creditors issued a winding-up petition and Andrew Rosler, director of ICS, was appointed administrator on July 30.

The ICS team, which included senior manager Eamonn Wall, consulted Blair Plant's stakeholders in a bid to save the company from closure, and eventually managed to agree the sale of the entire business and operations to a new company, Blair Construction Ltd, which had been set-up by the existing management team.

Turner Parkinson Solicitors, of Manchester, assisted on the sale, which was agreed for an undisclosed sum.

Mr Rosler said that the deal to sell the business and assets to Blair Construction was good news for the workforce and the creditors.

"The sale has ensured that all employees' jobs are safeguarded and that the company's creditors will receive a much higher return than if the business had been shut down," he said.