Kilnbridge’s profit has grown by 92 per cent, according to accounts covering its latest financial year.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, pre-tax profit at the specialist structures contractor jumped to £3.8m, having been £2m at the end of the previous 12 months.
Meanwhile, revenue rose from £97.3m in 2022 to reach £120.1m last year.
The company’s pre-tax profit margin grew to 3.2 per cent, having been 2 per cent the year before.
Chief executive Dermot McDermott said the results were pleasing, given the increasing commodity, energy and labour costs affecting the industry.
“This impressive margin underscores our ability to navigate challenges and effectively integrate inflation recovery mechanisms within contracts. Furthermore, it reflects the successful culmination of various final account agreements, all of which were concluded by year-end,” he said.
The East London-headquartered firm carries out specialist jobs including enabling works, complex structural alterations, civil engineering and infrastructure, reinforced concrete basements, sub and superstructure frame construction, and structural steelwork.
Kilnbridge was sold to an employee-ownership trust in May 2021. Some 360 staff received an £862 bonus each in the latest year, up from £545 in the prior year.
Its work during the period included a start on the East Bank development at the former Olympic Park in Stratford, east London; structural steelwork for the Riverlinx joint venture on the Silvertown Tunnel crossing the Thames in east London; and an upgrade to Gatwick Airport station infrastructure.
The firm has also worked on HS2, including the Copthall Tunnel and Colne Valley Viaduct.
McDermott said in his strategic report alongside the accounts that the “disappointing” cancellation of phase 2 of HS2 led its pre-construction team to stop working on the tenders it had been developing.
But he noted that other future “significant opportunities in major national infrastructure and energy projects” would provide a source of future work for the company.
Elsewhere in the accounts, the company said it was still working with the authorities and client to “gain a complete understanding of the events that took place” in July 2022, in which a Kilnbridge employee died at the Gatwick Airport station site.
“Our utmost priority is to offer support to the bereaved family and ensure the wellbeing of our colleagues,” it said.
“The board is committed to driving improvements across the business to ensure the safety and protection of all who work within our operations.”
