Marshalls profits rise on the back of construction industry recovery

ELLAND-BASED construction supplier Marshalls is taking advantage of market recovery in the sector, reporting pretax profits up 48.5%.

Revenue for the half year to 30 June 2015 reached £199.1m, up from £180m in the same period last year, and pretax profit increased to £20.8m compared to £14.0m in 2014.

Both commercial and public sector trading was up, and the firm said it had focused on increasing its manufacturing output to keep up with market recovery.

They said they had enough capacity to keep up with “medium-term demand” and the flexibility for further capacity investment.

Marshalls manufactures natural stone and concrete hard landscaping products, supplying the construction, home improvement and landscape markets.

Martyn Coffey, chief executive, said: “The group is well positioned to grow organically and selectively through acquisitions. We will continue to focus on growth initiatives during the remainder of 2015 and in 2016.

“In order to drive growth, the Group continues to develop the Marshalls brand and invest in product innovation and service delivery initiatives to deliver improved trading margins and increased return on capital employed.”