£19.2m profit puts Galliford Try on course to deliver expansion plans

Hybrid construction and housebuilding group, Galliford Try has reported a £19.2m pre-tax profit and is on track to deliver the planned expansion of its housebuilding arm first set out in September 2009.

In its results for the year ending 30 June 2010, the company reported that revenue was £1.22bn, down 16% from £1.46bn the year before. The pre-exceptional profit before tax was up 6.5% to £26.1m from £24.5m in 2009.

Earnings per share for the period were 14.7 pence compared with a 34.4 pence loss in the year before. Excluding exceptional items, earnings per share dropped to 24.6 pence from 35.8 pence last year.

There was a 30% increase compared to 2009 in sales reserved, contracted or completed at £263m and the group’s order book has increased 6% to £1.8bn.

The results also highlighted the progress of the group’s planned housebuilding expansion plan, first set out in September 2009 at the time of a rights issue. CEO Greg Fitzgerald said: “We have been encouraged by the level of sales and prices achieved since the start of our new financial year when set against the backdrop of the effect on consumer confidence of the current economic uncertainty. Our presence across the more resilient markets in the South, and the opportunities we continue to generate from our leading position in affordable housing and on regeneration schemes underpin our progress.

“We have maintained a quality construction order book in increasingly challenging market conditions and anticipated reductions in public sector work.

“The strength of the group’s finances and the spread of its activities leaves us, subject to economic uncertainties, well positioned to deliver our planned progress.”