PressureFab, the UK’s only offshore container manufacturer, has fallen victim to the oil and gas slump with the loss of 40 engineering jobs in Dundee.

Administrators have been called in by its director German-born Hermann Twickler, who started the firm in Forfar in 2009 with his own cash and was named Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012 after the firm raced to a £6m turnover and a skilled workforce of 90.

It received a £935,000 regional assistance grant four years ago. In 2013 Mr Twickler was named Business Leader of the Year, and the company reported a near £1m profit.

But early last year one of PressureFab’s acquisitions Houston’s of Cupar was wound up with debts of £300,000 only nine months after being taken over, and the workforce had been more than halved by last week when staff were told they were being temporarily laid off.

KPMG said yesterday that Blair Nimmo and Tony Friar had been appointed joint administrators of PressureFab, its parent company Twickler Industries, and a further four group companies.*

The administrators said PressureFab designed and manufactured specialist rig topside and subsea equipment and was considered Scotland’s largest offshore container manufacturer.

Operating from a 250,000 sq ft facility on the A90, the group had the resources to design and fabricate bespoke projects up to 2000 tonnes of steel volume and single components of up to 50 tonnes.

“But despite an annual turnover of around £5.3m as recently as the year ending 31 January 2015, the company has been significantly impacted by the oil and gas downturn. A sharp fall in revenues has resulted in unsurmountable cash flow difficulties, ultimately leading to the administration appointment.

“Over the past 18 months the group has reduced costs in an attempt to mitigate the effects of reducing activity levels, with headcount reducing from a peak of approximately 100 in 2015, with the remaining 42 employees made redundant shortly before the group entered administration.”

The joint administrators said they would be “helping the employees to claim their entitlements and will enlist their support, where appropriate, in realising the assets across the group”.

Blair Nimmo, head of restructuring for KPMG in the UK added: “PressureFab is the latest firm to fall victim to challenging trading conditions in the oil and gas sector. As client orders were cancelled or postponed, the number of new business enquiries reduced significantly, leaving the company with no option other than to cease trading.”

Employees including 30 welders, painters and fabricators were informed by letter on Thursday, a week after they had received a ‘notice of temporary lay-off’ as the firm closed for a summer break.

The letter ends by thanking the employees for their service and adds: “We are deeply sorry, and truly wish you all the very best in the future.”

Mr Twickler, trained in Germany as a master manufacturer and a former executive at shipbuilders VT, ploughed £500,000 into the Scottish start-up. Pressure Fab became the UK’s only manufacturer of offshore containers.

It competed successfully with lower-specification equipment using Chinese components assembled in the UK, and its breakthrough contract came when, within 18 months of start-up, it won an order for 18 platts (pipe connectors) for a BP project requiring submersion to a depth of 400 metres.

In late 2013 acquired RT Metal Services, a stainless steel manufacturer based in Arbroath, on the retirement of its managing director Tom Smith.

Six months later paid £120,000 for steel fabricator Houston’s of Cupar, then run by Andy Curran, and moved it to Dundee. But later that year Mr Twickler found himself being sued by a raft of Houston’s suppliers for unpaid bills at the renamed PressureFab Subsea, where administrators were appointed, and at the principal company.

In November 2014 Mr Twickler reported that the business was on course to hit £10m of turnover and make £1m of profits that year, but said the market had been slowing . He said PressureFab has been capitalising on strong activity in deep water and subsea markets around the world., including Brazil and the US, and that the Scottish operations of services giants Aker and GE are important customers.