Repair and maintenance specialist Rok is looking to bring more work in-house by buying small plumbing, heating and engineering companies

The firm said it was looking to increase the number of people in its plumbing, heating and engineering division to 900 within the next two years.

Ashley Martin, Rok鈥檚 finance director, said the division, which currently employs 600 people across 16 regional offices, would expand that capacity to about 36 regional offices in two years.

Martin said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty much covered now geographically, so there鈥檚 not so much need to look for acquisitions. The one area we might look is small plumbing, heating and engineering firms.鈥�

Martin said Rok didn鈥檛 envisage expanding its turnover hugely in the area, but would aim to improve margins by taking work in-house.

The news came as Rok released preliminary results for the year to December 2009 showing profits rising threefold to 拢17m. Turnover declined by almost a third, from 拢1bn to 拢715m as revenue from new

build activities dropped by 45% and the business refocused on repair and maintenance work.

Rok added that it had 85% of its 2010 revenue 鈥渟ecured or probable鈥�. Garvis Snook, its chief executive, said the firm鈥檚 maintenance and improvement businesses now accounted for 58% of Rok鈥檚 revenues and 83% of its profits.

The company spent 拢5m restructuring the business in 2009, but said it would reap savings of 拢18m a year.

Martin added: 鈥淚n terms of new build construction, the pricing is intense and we don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e reached the bottom of the market yet.鈥�

Downloads

Topics