Murphy posts £6m loss

North London contractor J Murphy & Sons slumped into the red last year, racking up a near £6m pre-tax loss.

The firm blamed “challenging” market conditions and problem jobs for the slump during the period which was the first full year under the stewardship of John Murphy, the grandson of the company’s founder.

Murphy replaced O’Rourke veteran Steve Hollingshead in the top seat at the beginning of 2018.

It said a strong performance in its UK transport and power divisions, as well as the company’s Irish and Canadian operations, helped lift revenue by 4.4% to £781m.

The contractor said it has already secured 73% of its target workload for 2020 and 40% for 2021.