A TAVISTOCK businessman made a 'heartbreaking' decision this week to put his 28-year-old steel fabrication firm into liquidation.

Bill Phillott closed down Steeltech Ltd at Pitts Cleave Industrial Estate following a really tough two years, which has seen the national usage of steel drop by a half.

The 56-year-old owner, who started the business with his father Alec in 1983 and moved from Gulworthy to a one and a half acre site at Pitts Cleave in 2000 when business was booming, said the hardest thing was telling his 23 employees.

'It was the hardest day of my life but the staff have been brilliant,' he said. 'Most of them have been with me since they left school and company trained. I invested in them and they invested in me and that's why I have laid no-one off until now even though it has been a struggle over the last two years.'

Mr Phillott designed and built the 12,000 sq ft factory at Pitts Cleave with its five tonne overhead cranes.

He added: 'It's probably the best facility this side of Bristol but it requires lots and lots of steel and the work is just not out there anymore,' he said.

Among the structural steel specialist's clients were South West Water, Balfour Beatty and Dean and Dybal and the building of Buckfastleigh Church, a netting system for the famous Belfry Golf Course in the West Midlands and SWW plants in Barnstaple and Prince Rock were among its many projects, both in the UK and abroad.

Steeltech Ltd diversified into high value architectural items such as stainless steel and glass hand railing and spiral staircases when the big builds dried up but Mr Phillott said this was not a long term solution.

He said he had nearly put the firm into liquidation on two previous occasions: 'I worked 12 hours a day and came in weekends — I worked as hard as I could to pull it off but I am 56 now and I just can't do it anymore. It's heartbreaking and a really sad loss.'