Aberdeenshire housebuilding and construction firm Bancon Group has reported a near £35 million drop in turnover in its latest accounts.
The privately owned firm, which employs 250 people across its three core businesses saw turnover drop to £97.7m for the year ending March 2024.
This was a 26% reduction from £132m in 2023.
Bancon Development Holdings Limited includes Bancon Homes, Bancon Construction and Deeside Timberframe.
It put the dip down to a challenging year for UK housebuilding and construction sectors with high inflation, increased mortgage and interest rates and unpredictable mortgage availability.
Pre-tax profits fell to £1.3m from £1.8m in the 2023 financial year.
However, the company expects a significant increase in turnover and profit in its current year to March 2025 as market conditions improve.
Bancon said current sales of homes are more than 50% ahead of the previous year and it has already secured a strong order book for timber frame in 2025.
Challenging year for industry
Andrew Tweedie, chief financial officer at Bancon Group, said: “In what was a challenging year for our industry, we have weathered the storm to deliver a resilient performance with positive results.
“Our strong and balanced portfolio of business streams combined with a focus on control of margins and overheads have enabled us to remain profitable in spite of reduced sales across our business.
“With some of the uncertainty in the market having settled, we are now seeing a marked uplift in activity and trading performance across all the sectors in which we operate.
“We look forward to delivering a strong and further improved result come our year-end in March 2025.”
UK housebuilders have been reporting volume reductions of between 30% and 35% in the period of these accounts and this trend was reflected in Deeside Timberframe’s activity levels.
Its volumes have recovered strongly throughout the first half of this current financial year with expectations of this being maintained for the full year.
Market conditions improving
Meanwhile, Deeside Timberframe, which designs, manufactures and installs timber systems has made significant investment in its automation, capacity and production capabilities.
Bancon Group’s chairman Bob McAlpine concluded: “These robust results reflect the underlying strength of our business, the spread of risk and strong position in the markets in which we operate.
“With market conditions improving, a strong team in place, and a marked uplift in activity levels this year we are well-placed to deliver our growth ambitions and capitalise on the prospects available to us going forward.”
Founded in 1975 and based in Banchory, Bancon Group has evolved from a modest estate joinery business into one of Scotland’s top construction and housebuilding companies.
Its current developments include The Reserve at Eden and Kinion Heights in Aberdeen, Lochside of Leys in Banchory and Aden Meadows in Mintlaw.
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