Perth has been dealt a major blow as it emerged that familiar city firm Park Plumbing & Heating has ceased trading.
Founder and owner Steve Park told staff the devastating news at a meeting at the company’s Glencarse base, where it has a luxury bathroom showroom. It is understood the company, like so many others in the trade, has been struggling since the economic crash, and new house building has not picked up sufficiently to keep it viable.
Among the staff to lose their jobs were Mr Park’s two sons, as well as office and administration staff and a dozen plumbers.
Mr Park, a prominent local businessman and director of St Johnstone FC since 2004, made no comment, but one worker said, “It’s a very sad day because this is a well established firm that everyone knows and trusts in Perth.
“In hindsight, the writing’s maybe been on the wall for a while because the work just hasn’t been there like it was a few years ago. The whole industry is still in crisis and we’ve been caught up in it. We’re not the first to go and I doubt very much we’ll be the last,” he added.
Park’s was established in May 1984 when Mr Park decided to become self-employed and he quickly took on three new plumbers to meet demand. The business was steadily built up in the following 25 years-its yellow and blue livery becoming one of the most distinctive of the Perth trades companies.
During the housing boom the firm specialised in plumbing services on major housing projects and took on many new staff, but that policy backfired as the economic crash brought a near halt to larger schemes, and there has been a down-sizing ahead of this week’s final decision.
Park’s is not the first high-profile casualty of the downturn in Tayside this year. In May, 30 people lost their jobs when Dundee firm George Penman Plumbing & Heating, folded with debts of £300,000, claiming the knock-on effects of sub-contractors going out of business had pulled it down.
CMS Heating & Plumbing in Arbroath also closed its doors in February with the loss of 40 jobs.