Willmott Dixon plans to push turnover up to £1bn by 2010

Willmott Dixon’s two new offices are expected to add £100m to turnover this year, helping the group towards its forward target of reaching a £1bn turnover by 2010, £350m of this is coming from Inspace.

The first of these, in Dartford, Kent, was launched in January 2007 while the latest base in Manchester opened at the start of this year.

Willmott Dixon’s latest financial results (12 months to 31 December 2007) show turnover at £410m (figure in previous year: £380m)

There was a profit margin of 2.7% as pre-tax profit ran to £10m.

On a like-for-like basis the latest profit was 8% higher. The calculation is not straightforward as previous year’s pre-tax profit figure contained a massive exceptional item as a result of Willmott Dixon selling its Widacre subsidiary business to Inspace. This one-off move took the group’s 2006 profit figure to £48m.

In 2007, WD’s construction division accounted for all but £1m of the group’s total turnover.

Cash flow showed a “strong performance” resulting in net funds of £73m at the year-end, representing a rise of £16m.

Rick Willmott, chief executive, said: “We remain committed to our staff incentive scheme with £3.5m of payments being made during 2007 to staff.

“In addition, the share incentive scheme established in 2006 for all directors, other than the group board, has allowed many senior staff to become shareholders.”

The construction workload at the start of 2008 included £460m of projects at the “already secured or highly probably” category for the current year and a further £310m-worth lined up for 2009.

Willmott said: “One of the key transformations in the procurement of capital projects in recent years has been the early introduction of the constructor into the team, typically our involvement in projects commences at an early state in the design process, giving our pre-construction teams the opportunity to influence the adaptation of sustainable and economic processes.

“This style of approach is best procured under collaborative forms of contract, such as the NEC and PPC2000 forms which promote this ideal.”

A quarterly audit of Willmott Dixon’s workforce shows 95% of those employed on sites now carry a CSCS card.

Shortly after the year-end, Willmott Dixon paid £118m for the 79% of Inspace that it did not already own. Inspace, a former subsidiary, had been de-merged and floated on the Stock Exchange two years earlier. Net assets acquired as a result of the deal ran to £26m.