Morris & Spottiswood report growth and restructure

Morris and Spottiswood, the Glasgow-based shopfitting, construction and facilities management support specialist, has reported year on year sales growth of 30% to £55m for the year under review.

It has also undergone a restructure by merging its construction and FM divisions under the same roof and creating three Operational Boards.

The Shopfitting (North) Board will be responsible for project relationships currently managed from Glasgow and Edinburgh, while the Shopfitting (South) Board is tasked with growing the fitout and refurbishment business in England. The FM Board will manage the combined FM Support and Construction business units and will provide a reactive and planned maintenance service in Scotland and the North of England.

"Growth on the shopfitting side has been greatly assisted by the expansion of contract wins in England. A factor in this growth has come as a result of a restructuring of the management team, which has provided us with a template which can accommodate further growth in the business, especially south of the border," said chief executive George Morris.

Morris told CJ that a critical element in the company's growth has been "our enhanced ability to win business by negotiated contracts, rather than at tender where the uncertainties make it difficult to secure satisfactory contribution margins".

In 2002, Morris and Spottiswood conducted negotiated settlements with blue chip clients including Asda, Safeway, Royal Bank of Scotland and Alliance & Leicester, and developed new relationships with Tesco and MFI.

The company says it has become more discriminating in the projects with which it chooses to become involved and is particularly reluctant to become engaged in one-offs.

"Around four fifths of our activities in the year comprised repeat business which, in turn, arose from our ability to demonstrate consistency in delivering to clients on time and within budget," said Morris.