Profits have fallen by nearly £2m at demolition contractor Colemans.
The company’s latest accounts, for the year to 30 April 2023, show its pre-tax profit fell to £268,000 from £2.5m the previous year.
Turnover was over £12.98m in the last year, up 10.6% on the previous £11.73m.
The Birmingham-based specialist, formerly known as Coleman Group and parent company of Coleman & Company, now also rebranded as ‘Colemans’, did not give a detailed explanation for the fall in its bottom line.
However, its accounts show the company generated £1.6m through asset disposals in 2022, compared with almost nothing last year.
A statement with the accounts said: “Given the existing backlog, the directors consider the current profit margin to be sustainable.”
The company has shrunk considerably in size since 2020, when it announced plans to lay off half its workforce after being hit by the impact of the lockdown and the cancellation of work at one shopping centre. At the time it had a turnover of more than £25m, but said it expected this to fall to between £12m and £15m a year in the future. In 2015 its revenue was £30.3 million.
Later in 2020, it said it would engage in asset sales to generate working capital.
In its new accounts, Colemans highlighted that it has no loans and has the lowest debt-to-earnings ratio of any demolition contractor in the UK.
The firm has changed its brand during the 2022/23 financial year, as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of its establishment.
In February 2016, four of its employees, Michael Collings, Chris Huxtable, Ken Cresswell and John Shaw, died in the collapse of Didcot Power Station. Five other people were injured.
More than seven years after the incident, the joint investigation by the police and the Health and Safety Executive continues.
Colemans said in its latest accounts: “The company continues to co-operate fully with all those involved. Based on rigorous inquiries by independent specialists and professional advice, the directors do not believe that the company is responsible for the cause of the incident
“It is entirely impracticable for the administrators to provide any estimate of the financial liability, if any, arising from the matter, and the probable time frame for its settlement. However, the administrators trust that insurance contracts exist comprehensive, with adequate compensation limits, to cover the financial consequences in case there is any liability”.
In February, Construction news he highlighted the impact that waiting for answers has had on the families and ex-colleagues of the dead and the lack of lessons that the sector has been able to learn from it to ensure that it now operates safely.
Later in the year, said Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham (where Cresswell and Shaw were from). CN that the issues surrounding the collapse had been “kicks in the tall grass”.
