NG Bailey: slight turnover dip to £490m

NG Bailey, the M&E group, suffered a slight dip in turnover to £470m last year as a result of delays in contract commencement.

Not surprisingly Bailey’s pre-tax profit also eased back to £18m.

The group’s latest figures cover the 12 months to 2 March 2007. In the previous period there was a £20m profit from turnover of £490m.

The company stated: “Sales and profit showed a small decline as predicted. This was caused by delays in contract commencement, and the resulting point in the contract cycle reached at the year-end.”

Bailey’s forward orderbook is the strongest ever, however.

A total of £6.2m special payments were made to tackle the pension scheme’s funding problems, in addition to the normal payroll costs.

Bailey has appointed a chief innovation officer to tackle “the risk of inadequate focus on research and development”.

The group’s 3,800 employees divide between two main groups: 2,100 who are hourly paid and 1,700 in management and administration.

The employees’ payroll pension provision cost Bailey a total of £5.8m.

The highest-paid director took home £700,000. His previous year’s figure was restated at £480,000 which represents a rise of £200,000 over the figure previously published, the add-on being a two-year reward from his long-term incentive plans.

Three of Bailey’s directors are on a defined benefit pension scheme.

Two special payments put into the employees pension scheme in 2005 cost a total of £11m. In February this year another two payments also went in, at a total cost of over £6m.

The pension scheme is carrying a latest deficit figure of £27m as a result of liabilities running to £180m and assets of £153m. Two years earlier, the deficit was put at £33m.