East Anglian building services company Knights Warner has ceased trading with the loss of 50 jobs.

The firm, which was formed in 1943 and is based at Kessingland, near Lowestoft, with a second base at King’s Lynn, stopped work on all its current contracts earlier this week.

In a statement the company said: “It was with much regret and sadness that the directors of Knights Warner Ltd had to make the difficult decision that the company should cease trading on August 14, after almost 70 years of trading.

“The company is another victim of the effects of the economic downturn that has had a drastic effect on the construction industry. In order to remain competitive and win contracts, the company had to work to ever reducing margins and as a result of this and not being able to satisfactorily agree the final accounts on several large contracts, the continuation of the business was no longer viable.”

The statement thanked all staff for their work for the company, “some over a significant number of years, with the longest serving employee having worked for the company for more than 40 years”.

It added: “Unfortunately, the immediate cessation of trading has meant that the company has been unable to complete work which was in progress on a number of sites across the region.”

Insolvency practitioner Andrew Turner, from chartered accountancy firm Lovewell Blake, has been appointed as liquidator to Knights Warner and he expects the company will be placed into creditors voluntary liquidation on September 4, when a statement on the assets and liabilities of the company is expected to be reported.

In May, the company announced it had won contracts with Hopkins Homes for the first of a development of 63 properties at Tower Road in Felixstowe and a �320,000 contract for a 70-plot development at the old Bertram Books Site, in Norwich.

It also said it had won a �500,000 contract with Drayton-based R G Carter to design and build mechanical services at a new 61-bedroom care home at Chantry Close in Ipswich.