Ukraine war fails to halt progress at structural steel group

Structural steel and construction safety solutions group, Billington Holdings, says it coped successfully with significant challenges last year, as it publishes its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Despite the supply chain impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, revenues for the Wombwell-based group increased by 4.7% to £86.6m (2021: £82.7m).

And pre-tax profits climbed to £5.8m (2021 – underlying: £1.3m), which the group says was reflective of larger contracts in robust market sectors being completed in the year, combined with improved factory efficiencies.

Mark Smith, chief executive officer, said: “2022 has been a challenging yet rewarding year for the Group. The onset of the Ukraine conflict presented significant challenges in terms of material availability and raw material price escalation, and I am pleased at how these issues were successfully navigated by our team.

“Continued delivery across the Group of our capital investment programme has shown significant efficiency gains.

“The resolution of some outstanding legacy contracts, combined with the delivery of high quality, large contracts in robust market sectors have all assisted in 2022 being a successful year for Billington.

“While being mindful of the uncertain economic outlook for the UK, we look forward to the remainder of 2023 with a strong orderbook and a pipeline of significant high quality prospects.”

The group adds that it has emerged from the pandemic related market disruption as a stronger and more efficient business, which continues to be supported by a healthy balance sheet and a committed workforce.

It notes it was able to quickly find alternative sources for products normally obtained from Russian and Ukraine, with supply constraints having less of an impact as the year progressed.

Billington Holdings says it has secured a number of significant contracts for 2023.