Profit at groundworks and concrete specialist Oliver Connell and Son is down by a third, its accounts have revealed.
In the year to 30 June 2022, pre-tax profit fell by £1.6m to £2.96m. Despite turnover increasing by 13.5 per cent to £106.7m, the firm’s gross margin also fell to 6.5 per cent, having been pegged at 8.4 per cent in 2021.
In their strategic report, the company’s directors said that maintaining gross margins and profitability “remains challenging”, with increased prices for building materials, steel and timber, as well as higher wage rates, having led to “unprecedented” cost increases.
The company has mitigated some of these rises by fixing some material prices for the length of a project and using cost-fluctuation clauses in client contracts.
The directors said the firm’s current and future order book “continues to be healthy”.
Activities are “now improving on airport and airside works”, they added, and the company’s other key sectors, construction and rail, “remain buoyant”.
Oliver Connell’s core business is reinforced concrete frames, which account for about three-quarters of its annual turnover.
The firm’s recent projects include Ballymore’s Brentford Project (pictured), a major mixed-use development in west London.
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