Willmott Dixon turnover closes on £1bn mark

Willmott Dixon's turnover has increased by more than two thirds to almost £1bn, its latest annual results show.

The group's turnover increased by 69% to reach £998.9m for the year ending 31 December 2009 (2008: £592.4m).

Profit before tax, excluding amortisation, increased 79% to £21.4m (2008: £12m). With amortisation, the pre-tax profit figure was £18.2m, a rise of 52% on the previous year.

Net current assets increased to £73.2m (2008: £29m), with cash jumping to £59.9m (2008: £7.9m).

Colin Enticknap, group chairman, said Willmott Dixon had secured “over 84% of our budgeted workload for 2010, allowing focus to shift towards the more difficult challenge of 2011”.

During 2009, the group restructured into three business streams: Capital Works (construction, social housing, and interiors); Regeneration (property, private housing, and investments); and Support Services (property and social housing maintenance).

Chris Durkin returns from a sabbatical to head Support Services. John Franckiewicz will run Capital Works, with Andrew Telfer running Regeneration.

In social housing, despite a thin order book at the start of 2009, volumes matched those in 2008 at £189m.

The firm exited the private sector maintenance market, “where reducing sales volumes could no longer justify the national infrastructure required”, according to Enticknap.

Enticknap said that Willmott Dixon was working hard to reduce its dependence on educational work, and “is working hard to develop relationships with private sector customers who offer the prospect of providing high volumes of future workload”.

But he added: “We do not see this as a quick or easy fix.”

Willmott Dixon has decided it will not appeal against the £4.5m fine imposed following the Office of Fair Trading's investigation into bid-rigging in the construction industry.

“Whilst we seriously considered appealing their decision, our concern that reputational damage from protracted publicity could potentially have caused more damage than the fine itself, led us to decide otherwise,” said Enticknap.

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