Tag Archives: slump
Housing slump hits groundworks contractor’s bottom line
Top Stories Tamfitronics Profit at groundworks firm M&J Evans slipped last year amid a slowdown in housebuilding, according to its latest accounts.The Walsall-based firm, ranked 49th in the CN100 2023 table of top contractors, posted a pre-tax profit of £2.2m for the 2023 calendar year from turnover of £334.3m.Both figures represented a steep decrease from revenue of £405.8m and pre-tax profit of £23.4m the year before.Chief executive Chris Southgate described a “challenging year” marked by “a considerable reduction” in demand for residential groundworks and increased borrowing costs as interest rates rose.He added that the resulting “operational inefficiencies”, combined with unrecovered “significant” inflation-related costs from clients, caused the firm’s margin to shrink from 5.8 to just 0.7 per cent.M&J Evans remained free of bank loan debt and had cash at hand of £18.2m at the end...
