Record performance and order book at steel group

Structural steel business Billington Holdings says it delivered a record performance in 2023, with strong trading across the group.

Publishing its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2023, the Wombwell-based business reported a revenue increase of 53% to £132.5m (2022: £86.6m), while pre-tax profits climbed to £13.4m (2022: £5.8m).

The group had a strong cash balance of £22.1m at year end (31 December 2022: £11.6m) and is now debt free.

Mark Smith, chief executive officer, said: “2023 was an exceptional year for Billington, with an excellent trading performance across the group, despite continuing macroeconomic challenges and against the backdrop of demand for structural steel in the UK remaining at a similar level to 2022. 

“I believe Billington is increasingly being seen as the steel work contractor of choice and the growth in Billington’s market share in 2023 is particularly noteworthy. 

“Whilst there inevitably remain further challenges ahead and market uncertainties are likely to remain for some time, the group has made significant investments for the future and currently has a record order book. 

“I am therefore confident that with our strong balance sheet and order book Billington will continue to perform well and in line with current market expectations.”

Billington adds it continues to benefit from significant projects in energy from waste, high-tech manufacturing, infrastructure and data centre facilities, where activity has returned to, or exceeded, pre-Covid 19 pandemic levels.

However, some of the markets in which the group operates continue to see reduced levels of activity from historic levels, particularly large office schemes, and industrial warehousing development, with less speculative development being undertaken.

The overall consumption of structural steelwork in the UK in 2023 remained at a similar level to 2022.

But the group notes certain markets were more buoyant than others, with the consumption of structural steelwork in industrial buildings falling by 2.2% and for commercial offices rising by 6.8%.

It says the overall market is expected to see a reduction in demand in 2024 of about 5%, before stabilising and returning to growth in 2026.