More than 100 firms have been badly hit by Ispace going into administration.

Ispace Corporate Interiors was placed into administration with total debts of £2.1 million. 

Premier Electrical (Southern), in Grays, is owed about £144,000 after fitting the entire electrical system at Curzon in Colchester.

Firm boss Steve Butler said: “The contract value was between £300,000 and £350,000.

“We finished the first part of the job and got paid for that then finished the second section.

“Then around four weeks later we found out they had gone bust. There are so many companies involved in this it is shocking.

“There is one gentleman we’ve spoken to who is a sole trader and he was knocked for so much money he has had to remortgage his home to stay afloat.

“The work cost us around £110,000 so I am out of pocket by that.”

Mr Butler is also a director of Premier Electrical Group, without which he says his firm could have gone under.

He added: “We were a bit lucky in a way because we are a slightly larger company we will get through it.

“But we have just laid two guys off which perhaps we would have been able to keep on without this. Without the other company this could have been really catastrophic for us.”

Danny Nagy, owner of Nagy Construction Services, which based in Chelmsford, said his company is owed approximately £17,000 for cleaning and construction work at the Curzon Cinemas in Colchester and Manchester.

He said: “We are a small business and this is a lot of money for us to lose.

“We have not had to think about getting rid of any staff at the moment, but this is money we cannot afford to lose.

“This year business was a bit slow so we were taking most of the jobs available to us; we will not be doing that again.”

Vlad Gavril, managing director of Gama Building Solutions, based in Woodford, east London, is owed £76,845 according to the report, but he said this didn’t include VAT which brought the amount to £90,000.

Mr Gavril said his firm installed the partition walls and suspended ceiling in the cinema between February and May but said he had no concerns about Ispace at the time of the work.

He added: “We had seven guys working on that job. After a few months we kept chasing them for money.

“At the beginning they weren’t picking up the phone, not replying to emails and then one day I emailed them and said I would go to their office. I spent half a day in front of their office.

“After that day, they knew I was there and they emailed me to say they would pay in the next two weeks, basically just to buy some time.”

Mr Gavril said he has had to lay off four staff until more work becomes available.

He added: “Because we didn’t have this money we couldn’t get any more bigger projects because we couldn’t buy any new materials or couldn’t pay for labour and we didn’t have the VAT bill so we are expecting for HMRC to come knocking on our door.

“From what I have heard from the other sub-contractors, we know the Government doesn’t really help anyone so there is not much chance to get the money back. We are due to have a meeting with the administrators at the end of the month, I am looking forward to it. But From what I know there isn’t a lot of money left in the account”

Anthony Masters Flooring Specialists, based in Westcliff, is owed nearly £28,000, according to the administrator’s report.