Administrators from Leonard Curtis were appointed as joint administrators of Thurston Holdings Limited, Thurston Group Estates Limited and Thurston Group Limited on 22nd 聽December 2025.
On the same day, the administrators completed a pre-pack sale to investment group GCH Corporation Ltd, having been formally instructed in November 2025 to conduct an accelerated mergers and acquisitions (AMA) process to identify a purchaser for Thurston.
GCH is Greg Hutchings, a former prot茅g茅 of Lord Hanson during his conglomerate-building days who subsequently built up his own conglomerate, Tomkins Group, in the 1980s and 鈥�90s. The diversity of the companies that Hutchings acquired for Tomkins, ranging from Rank Hovis McDougall to Smith & Wesson, earned it the soubriquet the 鈥榖uns to guns鈥� conglomerate.聽
Chief executive of GCH Corporation is Cassie Hutchings, Greg鈥檚 daughter. Confirming the acquisition of Thurston Group out of administration, she said: 鈥淭hurston is a respected UK manufacturer of modular buildings with a strong heritage and deep sector expertise. As a long-term, privately owned industrial group, GCH is committed to stabilising and investing in the business. We are excited to welcome Thurston into the GCH family and look forward to supporting its next phase of growth.鈥�
Thurston is a long-standing manufacturer of modular and offsite buildings for sectors such as healthcare, education, commercial and industrial. The main trading business, Thurston Group Limited, was established in 1970 and operated from three manufacturing sites with the head office based in Wakefield. The group employed 275 people and turned over 拢46.5m in the year to 31st October 2024 with a pre-tax profit of 拢3.3m.