Thirty construction staff have suffered a shock start to 2013 with the collapse of their firm.

GML Group, based in Coxheath and founded by an award-winning entrepreneur, had already laid off more than 200 solar panel workers with the closure of he Green Home Company.

Now its construction division, founded more than 20 years ago, has also ceased trading.

Thirty staff have lost their jobs, and administrators are about to be appointed.

Group founder Alan Proto, who was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2012 Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA), apologised to employees and creditors for giving them “an uncomfortable start to the New Year. I’m gutted for those 30 people.”

Mr Proto blamed the economic downturn for hitting the construction industry.

Last year, he said that Government cuts to subsidies for people installing solar panels - so-called feed-in tariffs - caused a 95% fall in business. Before the changes, the Green Home Company was turning over up to £10 million a month and employing 250 people.

Mr Proto is the group’s sole shareholder. He told KentOnline: “For the first time in my life, I’m completely wiped out. It’s quite numbing. I recognise that my responsibility is to work in the best interests of all those people who had a stake, and I will do everything I can to minimise the damage caused to them.”

Last summer, award judges hailed Mr Proto’s achievement as “an amazing background story of family achievement.”

But the award proved controversial, A relative of one employee who lost their job criticised Mr Proto for accepting it when he knew the extent of the job losses. Another source expressed “disgust at the choice of the winner.”

However, a KEiBA spokesperson said the judges had not been informed about the redundancies ahead of their decision.