Briggs & Forrester bounces back

Briggs & Forrester (B&F), the M&E specialist contractor, anticipates a speedy profit bounce-back after £1.5m of exceptions charges trimmed the group's latest pre-tax profit figure back to £1.2m.

In the 12 months to 31 October 2005, turnover was unchanged at £89m.

Mike Stanton, chairman, said: "We ended up with a pre-tax profit, which was down on the figure for 2004 - that was a cracking year and we hit a profit of £4.1m that time. We followed up with what was still a good year and the latest profit would have been higher but for the exceptional charges, the largest item among them being a £1m hit on an uninsured situation."

On top of that, two contracts slipped back into the current year. That might account for the anticipation of an 8% rise in turnover in the current financial year, the end of which is only 10 weeks away.

"We're making money and the cash balance has climbed to £10m," said Stanton. "Looking further ahead, we expect a 20% rise in workload in 2007, which should see us move up to a turn-over of £115m. The orderbook looks good."

B&F typically looks to reach its financial year-end with a margin of "3%-plus", said Stanton.

The group is based in Northampton and operates nationally through offices in Cambridge, Livingstone, London and Mansfield.

A management buy-in has seen Mike and his brother, Graham Stanton, cut their 91% stake in the group to 75% - a group of 25 senior managers having been granted a 25% share of the company.

"The directors have all joined," said Mike Stanton. "We did it to incentivise them, to prepare the company for the next step forward."

[Contract Journal, 30 August 2006, p 6]