FJ Chalcroft claws itself back into the black

Worcester-based Chalcroft Construction has hauled itself back into the black with a razor-thin operating margin of 1%.

According to its accounts for the year ended 31 March 2009, the contractor turned a pre-tax profit of £422,144.

The company, which specialises in building warehouses and industrial units, made a loss of £273,212 on a turnover of £45.8m in the previous year, but managed to push itself back into profit despite a 12% fall in turnover to £40.4m in 2009.

Meanwhile the company also managed to iron out its bank balance, turning a net debt of almost £1.4m as at 1 April 2008 to net funds of £125,558 by 31 March 2009.

But the positive numbers came at the expense of a reduction of headcount, with a 32% reduction in the average monthly number of employees in 2009 compared to the previous year. The average stood at 128 in 2009.

It also appeared that directors of the company received no pay for the year. In 2008 directors received £81,524 in emoluments and £9,048 in company pension contributions. But in 2009, both of those figures stood at zero.