Lakesmere lifts pre-tax profit 400% to £1.3m

Lakesmere, specialist roofing, walling and glazing specialist, has lifted turnover to £42m, representing a rise of £7m.

Pre-tax profit in the 12 months to 31 January 2008 moved ahead strongly, from a wafer-thin £260,000 in the previous period to a more comfortable latest figure of £1.3m.

Lakesmere’s directors state that the group’s future orderbook remains strong.

There was an increase in cash of £1.3m last year.

The number of staff showed little change at 164, this total being made up of 138 production staff and 26 administrators. The tally might have changed little but the group’s actual cost of wages and salaries jumped to £6.4m, a rise of £700,000, while the employee pension cost doubled to £440,000.

Lakesmere’s highest-paid director’s take-home pay of £112,000 was dwarfed by the additional £225,000 he was handed by way of a contribution to his pension scheme. The latest total of £337,000 was well ahead of the £156,000 figure he received in 2007.

Shareholders, who had received no dividend at all in 2007, got £447,000 this time round.

Lakesmere’s list of past projects includes the award-winning National Assembly for Wales and the Diamond Synchrotron.