Logistics and warehouse specialist Readie has blamed inflation and supply chain failures for a dip in its financial results for the year ending March 31, 2023.
A “disappointing” margin squeeze saw pre-tax profit fall from £1.92m to a loss of £1.35m, despite turnover growth of 22% from 345 million pounds to 421.1 million pounds.
The Essex-based firm, which two years ago became the largest contractor to become an employee-owned trust, employed 260 people during the financial year, compared with 219 the previous year . It ranks 55th in the latest CN100 table of major contractors.
Readie’s annual report and financial statements show the company’s pre-tax profit margin slipped into negative territory at -0.3% after what it described as an “incredibly difficult” year for the industry The company posted a margin of 0.6% last year.
“Meanwhile [margin] is disappointing, there were a number of factors outside of our control that contributed to this deterioration,” said CFO Jessica McCarthy. “We had a number of projects that were delayed due to supply chain failures , which they incurred[inary] costs to the company as well as additional costs to find replacement subcontractors at a higher cost.
“Inflation within the construction sector has been a challenge and this has had an impact on margin, along with a return to more projects being competitively tendered, rather than negotiated.”
The company’s cash balance at the end of the year stood at £12.3m, up slightly from £11.1m the previous year.
Dividends paid amounted to £741,000 compared to £5.77m the previous year, while directors’ remuneration rose from £1.5m to £1.6m.
During the year, the firm worked on 41 projects and achieved 22 hands-on completions with a total of 3.8 million square feet of warehouse space delivered to clients.
