Mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist Briggs & Forrester has undergone a “clear recovery” with turnover and pre-tax profit exceeding pre-Covid levels.
The latest set of group accounts, for the year to 31 October 2024, also revealed a record order book after the completion of a five-year restructuring programme.
Briggs & Forrester generated a pre-tax profit of £4.6m from revenue of £271.6m in the latest period, compared with £2.7m and £212.5m respectively in the previous year.
This was its highest annual turnover figure since 2019 (£259.9m) and its highest profit since 2018 (£5m).
The margin of 1.7 per cent was the group’s highest since it logged 1.8 per cent in 2020.
Construction News ranks Briggs & Forrester as the ninth largest M&E specialist in the UK and the 81st biggest construction business in the latest CN100 table of top contractors.
In a strategic report accompanying the accounts, chief executive and chairman Paul Burton said the results demonstrated a “clear recovery […] in what has been a particularly difficult market over the past three years”.
He added that the 28 per cent increase in turnover was “slightly stronger” than the 25 per cent growth predicted in the previous annual accounts.
A “solid performance” on major projects, combined with “firm controls” on expenditure, helped it deliver the 71 per cent profit boost, Burton said.
Wins in 2023/24 included a place on Pagabo’s £1.6bn healthcare decarbonisation framework. But one Briggs & Forrester project was disrupted after contractor Blenheim House went into administration last July, the accounts noted.
The year-end order book totalled £510m – a new annual record for the business – including £383m of secured orders and £126m in contracts in the final stages of negotiation.
In addition, it said £262m of orders had “already been secured for next year, covering over 90 per cent of the group’s budget”.
The contractor ended the financial year with £21.8m of cash in the bank, up from £18.6m the year before and £7m two years ago.
Short-term repayable bank loan debt was reduced from £269,500 to £214,746. It owed £2.7m in loans due for repayment after more than one year, down from £3.1m the previous year.
All of the long-term loan debt (£2.8m) will need to be repaid within two years, according to the accounts.
The group became an employee-owned trust in March 2021.
Headcount grew last year with a monthly average of 822 staff compared with 812 the previous year, although this was still lower than the average of 874 two years ago.
“The employee numbers include 250 of supervisory, craftsman/operative roles as we continue to maintain a highly skilled and experienced workforce,” said Briggs & Forrester.
According to Burton, the business is “now very well placed to deliver another solid performance next year supported by our healthy order book”.
He said the firm foresees “further volume improvement as market conditions continue to improve”, adding: “We have further scope to quickly increase resources in response to future growth in volumes through a combination of recruiting a direct workforce and utilising our trusted supply chain partners.”
In December last year, after the period covered by the accounts, Briggs & Forrester announced the sale of its building-services maintenance business to facilities management firm BGIS UK and Ireland.
At the time, Burton said the divestment would allow the M&E specialist to “concentrate on its core contracting activities across the UK” and “support investment within the group”.
In the latest accounts, Briggs & Forrester said: “We were also anticipating some senior management changes that we [thought] could potentially be exposing the [building maintenance] business to some management turmoil. We thought now was the right time to sell the business.”
The financial details of the sale were not disclosed at the time but the latest accounts say it brought a £6m “cash injection”.
