Renew turnover down 19% as focus shifts to engineering

Brian May, chief executive of Renew Holdings, has said its specialist engineering arm will account for half of group turnover by 2012.

In a shift of priorities, May (pictured) said the arm had the biggest potential for growth after its building division suffered in the recession.

The company said: “Our aim is to increase revenue in specialist engineering both organically and by acquisition, while maintaining operating margins in the target range of 3% to 4%.”

Brian May

Chief executive of Renew Holdings

The division covers the nuclear, rail, water and land remediation sectors and its turnover grew 23% from £93.3m to £114.8m in the year to 30 September 2009.

It accounts for 36% of group revenue compared with 24% last year. May said: “It gives us protection against what is happening elsewhere.”

Overall turnover at the company fell 19% from £390.6m to £316.6m, which was largely due to the weaker performance of its specialist building division, which covers education and the high-end residential refurbishment market. The arm’s turnover fell by almost a third from £294.6m to £202.4m.

Pre-tax profit at the group fell 18% from £6.7m to £4.9m but after one-off items, which included £2.2m of redundancy costs, the profit figure was down 83% to £1.2m.

Renew made 300 redundancies at its building division owing to the fall-off in work, leaving its overall staff level at 1,200.

Along with other contractors that include Galliford Try, Kier and ISG, Renew said it would appeal against a £3.5m fine issued by the OFT in relation to its cover pricing probe.