Bam Nuttall reports £28m profit and 3.2% operating margin

Bam Nuttall, the civils contractor, lifted turnover to £650m in 2008 with pre-tax profit also increasing to £28m.

The latest figures cover the 12 months to 31 December.

In the previous year (2007) there was a pre-tax profit of £19m on turnover of £590m.

The latest profit figure is enhanced by £7m of interest. The profit figure in 2007 was also enhanced by a non-operational element, with interest contributing a £5m towards that year’s profit.

Nuttall ended the year with £97m of cash in hand (comparable cash figure in the previous year: £105m).

After stripping out the £7m of interest element in 2008, the civil engineering operation achieved a margin of 3.2%.

The forward orderbook at the start of 2009 was £700m which Nuttall said provides “a solid position for 2009 as we enter into changing market conditions”.

Nuttall’s annual report reveals:

• 45% decrease in hand injuries
• 30% decrease in manual handling injuries
• 30% decrease in incidents relating to site access

During 2008, Nuttall said that it “continued to invest in its modern fleet of plant and equipment which will improve productivity on site”.

The company added: “We were one of the first to commit to the WRAP waste reduction targets”.

On 9 October 2008 the company changed its name from Edmund Nuttall to Bam Nuttall.

The group’s 3,005 employees were paid a total of £111m by way of wages and salaries.

Nuttall’s staff divide equally between weekly-paid and monthly-paid employees.