A steeplejack firm which rescued the 1999 Rugby World Cup organisers from a "flag faux pas" has been forced to run up a white flag of surrender.

Harrison Brothers Steeplejacks came to the aid of Welsh officials who realised the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was bereft of flagpoles just days before the opening ceremonies of the premier fixture in the rugby calendar. But the firm agreed last month to enter voluntary liquidation.

A statement yesterday said the liquidation was a result of a cross guarantee with a subsidiary company, Harrison External Refurbishment. There were no redundancies as the company had been in the process of winding down operations for some time.

Directors were keen to emphasise that insolvency proceedings had no bearing on Harrison Properties and Harrison External Display Systems, a trading division of Glassfibre Flagpoles.

Harrison Properties will shortly begin the development of phase two of Dragonville Industrial Park, in Durham, providing further industrial units for lease.

The steeplejack arm of the Harrison empire was founded in 1950 and, at its peak, secured contracts in the petrochemical and steel industries in this country and abroad.

The liquidation is being carried out by John Twizell of Geoffrey Martin and Company, of Leeds.