BUT JOBS COULD BE SAVED AS RIVAL SNAPS UP TRADE ASSETS

ONE of Plymouth's leading companies has fallen into administration.

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

The national online building supplies retailer CMO Group Ltd filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator at court but Lords Builders Merchants, one of the UK's largest specialist distributors of building materials, has swooped in to acquire its lucrative trade and assets, following a pre-pack process.

This will save jobs in Plymouth but have an impact on creditors. All trading activity continues under the new ownership without interruption. Customers, suppliers, and partners are being contacted directly.

Burrington Way-based CMO was famously set up, as Construction Materials Online, in 2008 by four men over a meal in a Plymouth Chinese restaurant and went on to become the UK's largest online building materials seller and therefore one of Plymouth's most significant companies.

CMO sells building products directly to customers, with a catalogue containing more than 140,000 items and operating specialist websites. Last year, the construction materials trade brought in £54 million in revenue to CMO.