Morson continues to make headway in difficult market
TECHNICAL recruitment firm Morson said that it remained confident about its prospects this morning after revealing a 4.8% increase in revenues during 2010 to £457.6m, although pre-tax profits slipped by 3% to £9.4m.
The Eccles-based company completed two acquisitions during the year, including its most substantial deal to date – the acquisition of the business and assets of Wynnwith Group from administrators. The firm said that the deal helped to strengthen its position in its core UK market, from which it now earns around 95% of its revenues.
The group’s founder and non-executive chairman, Gerry Mason, said: “Our order book for managed vendor opportunities in 2011 and 2012 remains strong.
“Morson has a market leading position in the UK within the aerospace, nuclear and rail markets and we continue to look into expanding into other complementary areas with a particular focus on overseas markets and permanent business.”
He said that although markets would remain “challenging” during 2011, the business continues to trade in line with expectations and that the group was well-positioned to take advantage of any recovery in the economy.
“We are capitalising on our strong brand image and competitive advantages and will continue to leverage our unique client base.
Chief executive Ged Mason said: “The recession provides opportunities for strong businesses to reinforce their market position and this is what we have achieved over the year.
“We have concentrated our resources on the more resilient parts of the market and have developed our services to ensure that they are relevant to our clients in an evolving marketplace. “This has allowed us to continue to grow parts of our business despite the prevailing economic backdrop and lost contracts causing decline in some sectors. “
For instance, he said, its aerospace and defence business grew by 6% during the year. However, its nuclear business lost ground partly due to the slow progress being made in building the next generation of reactors as well as the loss of a contract with Magnox on price grounds.
Work on rail and transport projects also remained “subdued”, but the company’s own consultancy arm, Morson Projects, managed to increase its revenues by 7.6% through work on design of composite materials for the Bombardier Learjet 85 and the Airbus A350.
Overall, the group’s net assets increased to £62m (£57.4m) by its December 31 year end. The company is proposing an unchanged final dividend of 4p per share and a total dividend for the year of 6p.
