Construction group doubles profits as it looks ahead with optimism

Construction group Stepnell is building on firmer foundations after doubling pre-tax profits in a “good year” for the business.

Revenue was up 15% to £146.3m, while profits rose from £787,000 to £2.07m.

The Rugby-based family business is more than 150 years old and operates across central and southern England.

Tom Wakeford, joint managing director of Stepnell, said: “Despite general market uncertainty, Stepnell has had a good year with the business securing more profitable, high quality projects and expanding our geographic reach with the opening of a new office in Southampton and the acquisition of new premises in Bromsgrove strengthening our presence in the West Midlands.”

Stepnell’s performance has been helped by an increase in projects from long-term construction frameworks.

The education sector is important for the group which works with Worcester, Oxford Brookes and Reading universities, and recently secured a place on the four-year, £8bn Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) Construction Framework for the delivery of new school buildings in South West and South East England.

Wakeford said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the year ahead, supported by a £190m order book.

He added: “While care, retirement and education remain our biggest market sectors, we have a healthy balance of commercial/industrial, retail, leisure, civil engineering, health and residential projects making the business well-positioned to adapt and respond to changing market forces.

“We also believe we have the right strategies such as careful selection of the right opportunities in place to build on our performance this year.”

In Birmingham, Stepnell completed the final phase of work on national disability charity Sense’s £14m TouchBase Pears centre in Selly Oak, and was appointed by Cordwell Property Group to build Wisemore Central, a mixed-use regeneration scheme in Walsall that will bring a Travelodge Hotel, McDonald’s, and a further 15,000 sq ft of leisure and retail premises to the town centre.

The project follows the company’s recent completion of a significant refurbishment of the town’s Rugby Central Shopping Centre for CT Properties in Rugby where it is also building a new boarding house for Rugby School.