Pricing pressure reduces margins at William Hare
STRUCTURAL steelwork specialist William Hare Group grew sales by 18% to £182.2m in 2010, but its profit margins more than halved to 2.9% as the difficult trading environment forced down prices in its sector.
Newly-filed accounts show that the Bury-based company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) dropped to £5.3m, from £9.8m in the previous year. Pre-tax profits dropped to £1.5m from £6.2m in 2009.
William Hare Group has been trading since 1945 and is owned and run by members of the Hodgkiss family.
A directors’ report accomanying the firm’s accounts from director Susan Hodgkiss states that the board considers its financial performance to be “satisfactory in light of global economic conditions”.
It adds that the board “will continue to actively pursue opportunities to strengthen the group’s financial position by reducing the cost base through focused cost control and targeted efficiency savings”.
Employee numbers dropped by 61 to just over 1,500 people during the year, but the company said its plan was to maintain, further develop and selectively invest” in capital and people to support growth both in the UK and overseas. It currently operates from four seperate bases in the UK and has offices in the Unuited Arab Emirates, India and Singapore.
During the year, net assets increased by around £700,000 to £50.7m, but its net cash position deteriorated from £17.9m to £4.9m by its year end.
