Contractor reveals final cost of writing off investment in failed offsite specialist was more than £1m

Regional contractor Beard posted a record turnover last year with the firm also seeing double-digit profit growth, the firm’s latest report and accounts have revealed.

The firm, which is based in Swindon and recently opened a new office in Southampton, said construction turnover was up 8% to £179m with pre-tax profit up 22% to £4.3m.

In accounts now filed at Companies House for EW Beard Ltd, the company’s net cash position at the year-end was flat at £33.2m from £33.8m last time.

Beard

Beard’s turnover hit a record £179m last year, the firm said in its latest accounts

In separate accounts for EW Beard Holdings, which includes its construction and property businesses, the firm revealed the final cost of writing off its 45% investment in a failed offsite building firm was more than £1m.

Beard said the collapse in 2022 of Green Unit, an Oxfordshire firm which specialised in low carbon, modular buildings and which claimed they were delivered to site “virtually complete”, meant it booked a £1.3m write off on its shareholding in its 2022 accounts.

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