Richardson Projects: margin to 7.5%

Richardson Projects, a construction company that obtains more than 80% of its turnover from operations in the social housing sector, has notched up a margin of 7.5%, ahead of the 5.9% margin achieved in the previous year.

The group has bases in Rochdale and Leeds.

Turnover (12 months to 31 August 2006) rose to £40m (£35m), while pre-tax profit strengthened to £3m (£2.1m).

Richardson’s North West Contracting division made “steady progress”. The North Eastern division continued to expand, with the group explaining that the recruitment of experienced site managers in the early part of the year “improved performance throughout the division”.

Further framework agreements are set to lift workload in the current year.

Richardson’s Speculative Housing division had “an excellent year” with completions rising three-fold.

The group’s balance sheet showed that the cash in hand at the year-end ran to £4m (£4.3m).

The highest paid director received £430,000, which was well ahead of the £124,000 figure in the previous year.

The group has 265 staff, of which 250 are direct labour and management. The company paid £60,000 into its employees’ pension scheme, a marked reduction on the previous year’s figure of £560,000.