An Aberdeenshire housebuilder revealed a greater than tenfold increase in profits due to a “much improved” market in the north-east.
Bancon Group said it enjoyed a “record year” for sales of private homes across developments in Aberdeen city, shire and the central belt.
This was despite its construction division facing a more challenging year due to supply chain disruption and escalating costs, it said.
How many houses have been sold and where?
In 2021/22, the Banchory-based company sold 260 homes, of which 135 were private and 125 were affordable across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highlands, Tayside and the central belt.
As a result of the positive sales, it has started building homes at Lochside of Leys in Banchory and the Aspire Residence in Aberdeen city centre.
Work has also started on the Cloverhill affordable housing site at Bridge of Don, where Bancon is building 536 units over a four-year period.
It added “positive momentum” has been carried into the new financial year with 60% of its target sales for 2022/23 already secured.
Bancon Group chief executive, John Irvine, said: “The underlying strength of the group, together with our clear strategy, has resulted in considerably increased profits, despite the well-documented headwinds being experienced by the industry.
“We have entered the current financial year with strong forward orders across all our businesses and continue to focus on our longer-term growth by significantly investing in the attraction, retention and development of people and increasing the production capacity of Deeside Timberframe.
“With these strong foundations and proactive measures we’ve taken to address the challenges of supply chain disruption, recruitment and rising costs, I am optimistic that we will produce another strong performance in the current year.”
Established in 1975, Bancon Group employs more than 250 people. It is owned by the family of James Burnett of Leys, 81, who also own the Leys Estate.
Bancon Group reported a 24% increase in turnover, on comparable pre-pandemic years, and 55% on the previous Covid-impacted year, in its accounts for the year ending 31 March 2022.
It said turnover reached £114m, up £40m on 2021
Pre-tax profits rose from £200,000 to £2.7m, which it said was “due to a full year’s trading with strong performances in the homes and timberframe businesses”.
It said its Deeside Timberframe business delivered an “exceptional trading performance” as a result of increased activity in both social and private housing.
It added it aims to increase production capacity in order to “capitalise on the positive market demand for offsite, sustainable construction methods”.