CONSTRUCTION group Galliford Try has announced record profits of £117.7m in a year which saw it acquire York-based housebuilder Shepherd Homes for £31m.
Galliford Try increased its revenues by 31% to £2.43bn in the year to June, with its pre-tax profits, before exceptional items, jumping up 24%.
Executive chairman Greg Fitzgerald, who will move into a non-executive role when Peter Truscott becomes chief executive, said all of the group’s businesses had been “buoyed by encouraging market trends”.
He said: “In housebuilding we have achieved progress on margins, and made strides towards further enhancement, implementing some operational restructuring and other business improvement initiatives.
“We are very pleased to have acquired the Shepherd Homes business, which will accelerate our growth in the North. We have achieved a significant increase in the landbank with market conditions remaining positive. We are continuing to see strong demand for our Partnerships affordable housing offering.”
Shepherd Group sold its homes division to Galliford Try’s housebuilding division Linden Homes earlier this year, saying it needed large-scale capital investment to grow, which Shepherd could not provide.
60 staff transferred to Linden Homes in the deal, which included 11 Yorkshire sites with a landbank of 515 plots.
Mr Fitzgerald added: “Reflecting the delivery of record results and our continued confidence in the business, we have increased our full year dividend by 28%.”
