Beard trebles pre-tax profit to £1.1m and opens new office

Beard has opened a new office at Guildford in Surrey and looks to achieve a £7m-£10m turnover from this new base within the coming three years.

Beard’s existing offices are located in Oxford and Swindon.

The construction group’s latest annual results, covering 2008, show a trebling of pre-tax profit to £1.1m with turnover 30% higher at £56m.

The forward orderbook stands at £29m and after budgeting for a slight easing of turnover in the current year, managing director Mark Beard reports that the group is “slightly ahead of budget for the first three months of 2009”.

Beard has recently won frameworks with Aspire and Oxford County Council worth £8m a year.

Beard pointed to a cash balance of more than £5m at the end of 2008, up from £1.6million the previous year. 

“The weakest player’s credibility is increasingly being put under the spotlight by discerning clients who don’t want their builder to go down on them” said Beard. “They are wondering ‘are we safe with X’ and we’re benefiting from that form of selection as Beard is one of the safest players in the construction marketplace.”

He continued: “While many companies have reported a decline in workloads in the commercial and industrial sectors for the first three months of 2009, we have actually grown this part of our business by 30%.

“A good example of our expertise in this area was the refurbishment of Wakefield House in Swindon, a £2.2m, 21-week project, which we finished six weeks early.

“Also, Beard has developed special works teams in each office to focus on more recession-proof jobs such as refurbishments and remodeling premises as well as our strong property services teams who provide maintenance and repair work for many customers including several Oxford colleges and the Thames Valley Police.” 

Beard sees likely growth areas to be data rooms, secure accommodation, and education including schools which require a fully CRB-checked workforce.

Beard is looking after its subcontractors as they battle through the tighter economic period.

“Subcontractors do well in boom times and suffer most in a downturn,” said Beard, “so we are careful to look after those who helped us in the boom times.”

The 18 subcontractors in the Beard Alliance account for 25%-40% of the group’s total subcontract spend, while a further 355-40% slice of workload goes to ‘regular subcontractors’.