Major firm folds after its director suffers ill-health

CUDDY Group is folding because of the director’s ill-health, the company has said.

The firm has been a familiar sight at developments around South Wales, having been involved in the demolition of Ninian Park and Cardiff ’s old bus station terminus.

The company started to have problems after former Ospreys joint managing director Mike Cuddy spent six months in hospital with neuro sarcoidosis, a rare condition that usually affects the organs.

“He had hoped others would fill the gap he left” but was “unable to arrest the slide” when no-one did.

More than 100 people have mow been offered jobs with house builder Persimmon, its managing director announced last week. Staff were gathered outside the company’s Llandarcy depot on Friday last week to be told that the firm, based in Neath, had given formal notice of its intention to appoint receivers today.

The company has been in discussion with financial company Grant Thornton.

In a statement, the company described how Cuddy Group has been the boss’s “life for over 30 years” with many of the workforce becoming personal friends.

It detailed how, in October 2016, he was struck down with neuro sarcoidosis, which can lead to inflammation of tissues. He spent six months in hospital and a further 18 months at home recuperating as his case was so serious.

“During his absence from enforced work at Cuddy Group, he had hoped that others would have stepped up to fill the gap he had left,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately this did not happen and the challenges facing the company increased month on month throughout 2017 and into 2018.”

The firm told the BBC that, against medical advice, Mr Cuddy returned to work six months earlier than planned, in April, in an attempt to improve the situation.

Despite injecting personal funds, he “was left no alternative but to put the company into administration”.

“Mike is devastated and as you can imagine, the news and the associated stress, are taking a heavy toll on his health,” it added.

“He intends to continue however, to do everything he can to ensure that the company workforce is successful in finding alternative employment.”

The statement said he had been working to find staff other jobs.

Workers, some of whom say they have not been paid for four weeks, were asked on Friday to return to the depot today with a form of ID so they could fill out the necessary paperwork and receive their payments.

The Cuddy Group has not made an official statement to us.

Emails to the company’s inbox bounce back and telephone calls to its offices are going unanswered. Mr Cuddy has been managing director of Cuddy Group, which directly employs more than 300, since January 1997.

The group has divisions including Cuddy Demolition, Cuddy Environmental, Cuddy Civil Engineering, Cuddy Plant and Transport and Cuddy Projects.

Mr Cuddy is also a key figure in Welsh rugby, having helped the Ospreys assemble a group of highprofile players.

He was Neath RFC’s benefactor, but the demolition magnate threw his financial weight behind the Ospreys when the region was formed in 2003.

According to latest accounts lodged with Companies House, the group reported revenues of £31m in the year to the end of July 2016, down from £42m a year earlier.

The group has been involved in major projects across South Wales like the the Barry Waterfront Development and demolition of the former Oceana nightclub building in Swansea.

It’s understood work has been halted on its demolition of the former Pontrilas factory in Llanelli.