Severfield has said it will have a turnover of more than £500m this year as it posts more than 20% growth in its revenue and profit figures for the last financial year.
The UK’s biggest structural steel contractor made pre-tax profits of £27m in the year to 25 March 2023, up 29% on the previous year, while its revenue up by £88m, or 22%, to a record £492m.
talking with Construction news, the company’s chief executive, Alan Dunsmore, said he expected “another year of growth”, with turnover in excess of £500m, in this financial period. It comes after the company bought a Dutch steel contractor with a turnover of £64m at the end of March.
Severfield said it had identified “significant pipeline opportunities in the UK and continental Europe”, according to Dunsmore CN that the biggest projects on his radar included car battery factories and wind turbines, major commercial schemes in London, nuclear works, film studios and new stadiums.
The contractor is already working on projects including Sellafield, bridges for HS2, Everton’s new stadium (with main contractor Laing O’Rourke) and the £500m Envision Gigafactory in Sunderland (with main contractor Wates) .
The company also co-owns a joint venture in India, which last year recorded production of more than 100,000 tonnes of steel, a record amount equal to Severfield’s production in the UK and Europe.
Dunsmore also said Severfield had weathered the worst of material and energy price inflation and was successfully passing on rising costs to customers, although after making a £3m provision for to energy prices during the 2021/22 financial year.
“What’s interesting is that steel prices were rising significantly before the energy shock. Prices doubled before the invasion of Ukraine (in May 2022), but that has now been fueled. [our] prices, with inflationary increases”, he said.
“It’s been all about communication — the main contractors have the same problem, and there’s been a lot of communication about how we align prices and the projects move forward.”
He added: “Everybody was working hard to make sure they didn’t take long-term contracts, but from what we’re seeing, overall it’s been well managed.
“There is still a bit of a problem [with steel price increases] but it’s stabilizing, in a context of doubling and tripling of steel in recent years, it’s much more manageable now compared to where it was.”
Severfield, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, saw its share price rise 9.5 per cent as of 12.25pm on Wednesday (May 14), following the announcement of its results.
