Ellmer doubled pre-tax profit to £2.5m

FB Ellmer has enjoyed a strong surge in turnover to £84m, well ahead of the £54m workload in the previous year.

Ellmer’s pre-tax profit was also stronger, doubling to £2.5m.

The construction group’s latest figures cover the 12 months to 31 May 2008.

Ellmer is a general building contractor with activities in new build, refurbishment, joinery and fit-out.

The headquarters have recently moved from Kingston-upon-Thames to nearby Teddington, Surrey.

The directors says that they consider the results for the year to be excellent.

However they go on to say: “With the outlook in the market presently weighted to the downside, the directors have acted promptly to revise the business plan to reflect the declining market.”

They anticipate the current year will prove to be challenging with a fall in turnover, but with the volume of two-stage tendering and negotiated workload being maintained none-the-less.

“The cash balance remains strong,” say the directors.

Net funds at the end of the period were £1.3m higher at £6.7m.

Ellmer makes a big push to pay its bills on time with a 30-day average payment period to trade creditors while sub-contractors, of whom many enjoy preferential terms, have a shorter period of payment of 25 days.

The number of employees rose to 197 from 145 in the previous year. The latest bill for wages and salaries was well ahead at £7.8m.

Shareholders were paid a dividend of £1.4m, up from the figure of £380,000 in the previous year.

Ellmer is one of four operations within the Byrne Group, the other three being:

• Chorus – a fit-out business
• Byrne Brothers (Formwork)
• Thorn Plant