Dawn Construction thanks PFI operations for turnover rise to £90m

Turnover at Dawn Construction almost doubled to £90m last year, but managing director Ray Eve points out that the upsurge is largely the result of one large £30m job suffering from a delay in getting started.

“We’d not anticipated the previous turnover being as low as £54m, but it was reduced when that contract was moved over a year,” Eve explains.

Dawn’s latest results (12 months to 31 January 2007) show a massive jump in pre-tax profit to £7.5m (figure in the previous comparable period: £2.9m).

Eve said that PFI work accounts for between 30% and 40% of the group’s turnover. That figure could rise thanks to Dawn reaching financial close a fortnight ago on the West Lothian Schools PFI where the build value of the two schools runs to £60m. Dawn will undertake the subsequent fm operations.

“We’ve signed the deal and we’re already on site,” said Eve.

Outside of PFI, Dawn has kept its focus on “working with strong clients on medium-to-larger sized contracts”.

Net assets have risen by 63%. Cash at the bank at the end of the period was £15m, a rise of £7m during the period.

Eve said that Dawn has a strong orderbook for 2007/08.

The number of employees fell from 28 in the previous year, to just 18, with five of these being the group’s directors.

Work is sub-contracted out, either to names within the group’s supply chain or put out to tender to the open market.

“We use a mix of the two,” said Eve. “We’ve used some people for 30 years and they’ve grown with us.

“When it’s appropriate we do go the market because if it’s a competitive bid we’re working up, then we’ve got to get competitive prices in from subcontractors.

“However, when we’re in a negotiated framework, such as PFI for example, we work through subcontractors from our supply chain. Typically they would have an input to design as it’s worked up.”