The West Midlands construction industry has been dealt another hammer blow after one of the region’s best-known demolition firms collapsed into administration.

Ninety jobs are under threat at Birmingham firm Armoury Demolition and Recycling, which has been responsible for clearing the way for high-profile projects such as the new Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square.

It comes just weeks after 250 people lost their jobs with the collapse of Coventry building firm CJ Haughey and in the midst of what experts describe as the toughest period in the construction year.

Administrator Harper Cavendish was called in just before Christmas by Legal & General, a trustee of its pension scheme, which was a secured creditor of the company.

According to the latest available accounts, Bordesley Green-based Armoury made a pre-tax loss in 2009 of £75,000 on a turnover of £8.8 million, down from a pre-tax profit of £830,000 in 2008.

Armoury owed £140,000 to the Armoury Demolition and Recycling Executive Pension Scheme in June last of that year, according to the 2009 accounts.

Armoury’s administrator said the firm was still running as it sought to deliver current contracts.

A statement from Harper Cavendish read: “The administrators are currently reviewing all the company’s contracts in progress with a view to completing these in order to maximise the return to creditors.

“Whilst it is early days in the administration, the directors of the company are fully assisting the administrators in providing the ecessary information to facilitate the orderly completion of contracts.

“The administrators have not ruled out the possibility of salvaging the goodwill of the core business built up over some 22 years.”