Cruden sees return to profit
BUILDING contractor Cruden Group witnessed a return to profit in 2010 after beginning to implement an 18-month improvement plan aimed at transforming the company’s fortunes.
The Warrington-based group, which consists of civil engineering, construction, social housing and upmarket housing development (the latter through its Hillcrest Homes division) saw its profits before finance and taxation increase ten-fold to £746,021 on the back of stronger sales.
Turnover was up 28% to £72m (2009: £56.4m).The improvement was largely due to a return to growth of its core construction business, where sales climbed 55% to £50.6m (£32.5m) and its pre-tax profit before tax and finance costs grew to £1.5m.
New work included the building of 350 units by its Care and Extra Care arm, which has a further 290 in the pipeline for its current financial year. It also broadened the reach of clients worked within that sector.
In social housing, the firm began building locally authority homes for both Manchester and Salford City Councils and said that it completed 180 units for all clients using timber-framed wall and floor cassettes that allowed it to make “real productivity gains through lean construction techniques.
However, the private housing market proved to be more of a struggle. Cruden Homestyle, the business unit selling affordable homes, continued to be impacted by the “severe shortage of mortgage finance and the large deposits required by lenders”, according to chairman Stephen Morris.
He added that Cruden Group sees “little sign of that market coming back for the next 3-5 years”.
Hillcrest Homes also struggled, recording a pre-tax loss of £251,810 on sales of £5.2m – down from £8.3m a year earlier. The firm said that it had sold a number of “one-off” homes to clients but that high-middle end homes had dropped in value and impacted on the firm’s results.
It only has a few units left for sale on its books and has temporarily rented some properties to reduce its costs, but has taken other schemes through the planning process and expects to start on site with a number of new developments early in 2011.
