Large frameworks exclude regional players, says Sol

Sol Construction has warned that the main risk that it faces is the increased tendency for public sector clients to lump work into large frameworks.

Midlands-based Sol’s projects range in value from £100,000 to £20m.

The company had harsh words for government-backed frameworks as they “often preclude the regional contractor due to work packages being unsuitable due to size or geographic spread and they therefore become serviceable only by the national contractors, who often then seek the regional contractors to carry out the work as they do not always have the local resource to complete the works”.

Latest financial results (12 months to 31 March) show turnover higher at £78m (£70m), while pre-tax profit doubled to £4m (£2.1m).

The group’s maintenance, special products and electrical divisions achieved a 27% increase in turnover with “a pleasing improvement in gross margins”. The directors said it was commercially prejudicial to give more precise details of turnover in each division.

Sol has a total of 348 staff, including 202 operatives. They were paid a total of £310,000 by way of pension costs, while the directors’ pension cost was higher, at £370,000. The group’s dividend ran to £1.7m (£820,000).

[Contract Journal, 1 November 2006, p 3]