Chief executive says he is satisfied with performance given 鈥渆xceptional鈥� costs during the period
The UK鈥檚 largest private M&E contractor NG Bailey suffered a 拢10m pre-tax loss last year as turnover slumped by 8%.
In accounts for the year up to 1 March, the Yorkshire-based firm鈥檚 pre-tax profit fell from 拢7.2m the previous year to a loss of 拢10.1m. Revenue, meanwhile, fell from 拢458.6m last year to 拢421.6m.
However, chief executive of NG Bailey, David Hurcomb (pictured), said he was satisfied with the performance given 鈥渆xceptional鈥� costs during the period of 拢11m.
He said 拢6m of this related to problems on two unnamed large projects while the remaining 拢5m resulted from restructuring because of a 鈥渄isappointing鈥� performance in the north of England and Scotland.
What鈥檚 different about us is our foundations are very solid. We don鈥檛 rely on borrowings
David Hurcomb, NG Bailey
He said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e had to reorganise in the north where performance fell below expectations. We鈥檝e reduced the size of our operations in Scotland and the north of England and have had 250 redundancies in that area.
鈥淥ver 2012, we had some great contracts which helped us. This year, we鈥檙e doing contracts won in the recession on tight margins [鈥It鈥檚 still ultra-competitive out there.鈥�
好色先生TV now makes up 38% of NG Bailey鈥檚 work, with civils work 37% and the remaining 25% representing NG Bailey鈥檚 services business including facilities management, IT consultancy and offsite manufacturing.
Last year, the services business made up just 17% of the firm鈥檚 work and the firm said then that the ambition was to grow it to a third of turnover within five years.
Hurcomb said the relatively poor performance of the building sector had hastened this expansion given that sales across services and civils rose by 26% year-on-year.
鈥淲e think building will come back but it will never be like the boom time of the late noughties again,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have seen strong growth in several areas, which has unfortunately been offset by a decline in building construction.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 different about us is that our foundations are very solid. We don鈥檛 rely on borrowings 鈥� instead we have a strong bank balance, considerable net assets, a 拢700m order book and backing from shareholders.鈥�
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