Gee Construction expects turnover to jump to £40m this year

Gee Construction expects turnover to rise to £40m this year as it revealed pre-tax profit for 2007 ran to £1.9m.

Turnover in the 12 months to 30 September 2007 stood at £34m (previous financial year: £38m). The latest profit was down £500,000 on the 2006 figure of £2.4m.

Gee’s main operations are building plus design and build contracts for industrial, commercial and residential clients. It also services contractors’ plant and machinery.

Geographically, the Basildon-based group carried out work in the south east of England, London, South West and South Wales.

Gee’s workload included schools, refurbishment of houses, sport centres and warehouses.

Gee has framework agreements in both London and the South West. It had secured 75% of its expected turnover for 2008 by mid-December.

Shareholders were paid a dividend of £760,000.

The average monthly number of employees during the year was: 46 in management and administration, plus 50 in construction.

The group’s two elements are:

• Construction, where a £26m turnover produced a profit of £500,000; and
• Plant hire (trading as Advante), where £8m turnover provided £1.5m of profit.

Both divisions’ profit figures are before the deduction of group costs.

Gee’s highest-paid director was paid £270,000 with an additional £32,000 for his pension pot.

The latest total might call for a slight belt-tightening as in the previous year he carried off a total of £350,000.