Billington Structures reveals record profit

Billington Structures, the structural steel fabricator, made a record pre-tax profit last year of £4.5m, well ahead of the previous figure of £3.9m.

Turnover in the 12 months to 31 December 2007 was also higher, up £4m at £55m.

The company benefited from a high level of repeat business as a result of its “well-established good relationships with a number of the major contractors” said the directors.

Projects completed during the year included:

• an automated distribution centre for Corus
• a group of multi-storey buildings at St Paul’s Square, Liverpool
• a data centre for Merill Lynch

Billington started 2008 with its best-ever orderbook.

While competitor Conder Structures announced last week that it has seen a dive in demand for structural steelwork, with orders down by a third, Billington says it has remained immune from such pressures and has not noticed any such deterioration and, as a result, it has avoided the need for any redundancies.

Trade creditors were paid in an average of 47 days last year, the same as in 2006.

The average number of employees ran to 287, a slight rise of 21, though the wages and salaries bill jumped from £8.1m to £9.0m.

The level of profits in the past two years has allowed for dividends totally £5.3m to be paid out.

The highest-paid directors earnings were £191,000 for pay plus an additional £47,000 for his pension pot.