Portakabin business hailed as ‘the future’ by Shepherd Group after major restructure
SHEPHERD GROUP, one of Yorkshire’s biggest family-owned companies, has said it is now “firmly” focused on its profitable Portakabin operations following a major restructure last year.
Shepherd Group reported a net profit on ordinary activities from continuing operations of £36.7m for the 18-month period to December 31 2015 compared to £10.1m in the year to June 2014.
Following the restructure in 2015, it said the business is now focused on further developing its Portakabin operations in the UK and overseas.
During the restructure, Shepherd Group divested its Built Environment businesses – Shepherd Engineering Services (SES) and Shepherd FM, together with a number of contracts and strategic frameworks from Shepherd Construction, were sold to Wates Group while the Shepherd Homes business was sold to Galliford Try’s house building arm Linden Homes.
It said the divestments were in line with the board’s “strategy to improve the quality of earnings by growing the profitable, lower risk businesses and reducing exposure to less profitable, higher risk operations.”
During the restructuring, the group’s board changed the company’s fiscal year end from 30 June to 31 December 2015.
It said that in the 18-month period there was “a strong performance by Portakabin, a good indication of the future profit performance of the group unfettered by the higher risk activities of the former Built Environment businesses.”
Those businesses recorded a loss which, along with disposal and restructure costs, resulted in an overall loss after tax of £28.1m for the group as a whole.
Shepherd Group, which recorded a turnover of £879.5m during the 18-month period, said it continues to enjoy a strong balance sheet with net worth of £182.9m and cash of £28.1m.
David Williams, Shepherd Group chairman, said: “These diverse results illustrate both the recent past and the promising future of the Shepherd Group.
“The past is reflected in the losses arising out of a small number of very challenging legacy contracts experienced by the divested contracting businesses. We recognised these operations needed greater scale to deliver the full potential offered by their exceptional technical capability and they were successfully transferred to Wates Group who are well-positioned to strategically exploit these businesses.
“Our efforts are now very clearly focused on Shepherd Group’s future which is represented by the continuing success and profitability of Portakabin. The further development of this market-leading business is in line with our strategy of investing in high-performing businesses consistently growing shareholder value.”
