Pre-tax profit at structural steel specialist is down 5% to 拢49.8m while operating margins rose slightly

Structural steel specialist Severfield-Rowen saw pre-tax profits hit as revenues fell 11% to 拢349.4m in the last year, it said today.

Reporting preliminary results, the firm said underlying pre-tax profits were down by 5% to 拢49.8m, while operating margins actually rose slightly to 14.6%.

The business also said its planned new steel plant in India will be fully working by the end of the year, employing 270 people, and will be ready to take its first orders by May this year.

However, the firm warned that the strong results, based on a large amount of Olympics work and large contracts for the Shard and Heron Tower, would not be sustainable in the long term.

General trading conditions remain poor, with pressure from reduced UK demand and lower pricing in all markets

Tom Haughey, chief executive officer

The firm said it had cut staff by 15% over the year, and 鈥渟ignificantly鈥� cut salaries across the business in order to generate savings of 拢10m a year. It has a forward order book of 拢219m.

Tom Haughey, chief executive officer, said the company was pleased with the results, achieved despite a very difficult UK construction climate.

鈥淕eneral trading conditions remain poor, with pressure from reduced UK demand and lower pricing in all markets,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he very creditable margin performance in 2009 will, as previously stated, be unsustainable in 2010. We remain vigilant and will maintain our focus on costs, capacity deployment and client satisfaction in our efforts to enhance our increased UK market share.鈥�

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