The chief executive of Rok has said turnover will fall back below 拢1bn in 2009

The admission by Garvis Snook comes after the company boosted turnover by 16% from 拢875m to 拢1bn in 2008. He said: 鈥淚t will drop by 20% this year, mostly in the building division.鈥�

Pre-tax profit at the repair and maintenance specialist fell by 76% from 拢24.5m to 拢5.9m in 2008 after a poor second half in which its commercial property arm closed.

In November, Rok鈥檚 share price halved to 35p in one day after it issued a profit warning. At the time, Snook said: 鈥淭he lights went out across the UK at the start of October.鈥�

Despite the warning, chairman Stephen Pettit said the firm was well positioned, and pointed to 拢2.7bn of 鈥渧isible future revenue鈥�. He said: 鈥淲hile 2008 was a challenging year, we have responded swiftly to the changing climate and taken the necessary action to address our cost base.鈥�

The turnover breakdown was: new build 拢564m (2007: 拢526m); planned repairs and maintenance 拢329m (拢255m); and response maintenance 拢119m (拢94m).

Snook added: 鈥淥ur strategy has been to reposition the business away from low-margin contracting into higher-margin repairs and maintenance, for which the business model is based on long-term framework agreements with good visibility of forward revenues.鈥�

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