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Tenth year of record results
• Revenues up 8% to £470.3 million
• Trading profits up 16% to £20.5 million
• Dividend up 10% to 3.4 pence per share
• Net cash of £18.6 million and no debt
• Pension fund surplus of £0.1 million
• Forward order book, including framework agreements, in excess of £1.25 billion
• More than 95% of business in dependable long-term contracts delivering essential maintenance services to the public and regulated sectors
It’s also been a good year for winning new long-term business:
• British Waterways: worth £80 million over 4 years
• Preferred bidder for North Lincolnshire Council Building Schools for the Future programme: worth £80 million for the first 5 years of a 10 year contract
• New Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) contract for Essex County Council: £16 million over 4 years
• Western Power Distribution contract: worth £24 million over 3 years
• Contract extensions totalling £150 million for our long-term clients Network Rail and Norfolk County Council
Commenting on the results, Philip Fellowes-Prynne, chief executive, said: “We are delighted to report record turnover and trading profits for the tenth year in succession, together with a strong cash position, a buoyant forward order book of more than £1.25 billion and a healthy pipeline of sales opportunities in our core markets.
“May Gurney’s target markets have proven resilient in the current economic environment and we continue to benefit from a good level of future earnings visibility, with more than 95% of our business in dependable long-term contracts to deliver essential front-line services for our clients in both the public and regulated sectors.
“Throughout the year we have achieved significant organic growth by using our established client relationships and wider service offering to secure a number of new long-term contracts.
“We have also continued to pursue selective complementary acquisitions, such as our £14.9 million acquisition of ECT Recycling, which has significantly enhanced our capabilities in the local government environmental services market.
“Effective cost management and operational efficiency are key priorities for our business in order to deliver better value for our clients. We firmly believe that focusing on these operational areas now will mean that we are better prepared for the future.
“We also continue to manage our fixed cost base: our ‘Shared Services’ strategy is now in deployment, driving greater operational efficiency and more effective service delivery for our internal and external clients.
“We have also developed our segmental strategy to reflect the underlying evolution of the Group in terms of the increased services May Gurney can now offer its long term clients.
“Going forward we will operate and report under two business segments: Public Services (which will include highway services, environmental services and facility services) and Regulated Services (which will include utility services, rail services and waterways services).
“This strategic focus has led us to accelerate our plans to scale back some of our more traditional operations in order to concentrate our energies on our core business – the delivery of essential maintenance and enhancement services. We are not exposed to private or public sector capital projects.
“May Gurney remains well positioned in all of its core markets to assist its clients as they increasingly seek outsourced solutions to implement change, re-structure services and achieve efficiency savings.
“The resilience of our target markets, coupled with our consistent operational performance, excellent visibility of earnings, focused strategy and strong balance sheet leaves us confident in the Group’s future success.”
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