Billington Holdings delivers strong performance despite facing material price increases

Billington Holdings, one of the UK's largest structural steel and construction safety specialists, said it delivered a strong performance last year, despite facing rising inflation and disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.
By Greg Wright
Published 18th Apr 2023, 08:07 BST
Updated 18th Apr 2023, 08:07 BST

The group’s revenue increased by 4.7 per cent to £86.6m in the year ended December 31 2022. Billington said 2022 was a year of significant progress and achievement for the group, during a period of continuing industry-wide challenges caused by material price increases, along with restrictions in the availability of certain products and some labour shortages.

In a statement, Billington said: “The business operated at close to full capacity for much of the year and while it continued to be impacted by continuing material price inflation and volatility, coupled with material availability constraints as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the performance and outlook improved during the course of the year.

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“A number of larger than average contracts were secured in the second half of the year at more attractive margins, particularly in the data centre, energy from waste and industrials sectors.

Billington Holdings Plc has published its full year resultsBillington Holdings Plc has published its full year results
Billington Holdings Plc has published its full year results

“These larger contract wins, coupled with the benefits being realised from the group's capital investment strategy and focus on efficiency improvements enabled a significantly improved performance to be realised.”

The structural steel businesses also benefited from the additional skilled labour recruited from overseas which has provided further capacity for 2023 and beyond, Billington said in a statement.

The prospects for the business in 2023 are encouraging, with a variety of higher margin projects secured and a further healthy pipeline of opportunities available, the statement added.

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Mark Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Billington, said: "2022 has been a challenging yet rewarding year for the group. The onset of the Ukraine conflict presented significant challenges in terms of material availability and raw material price escalation, and I am pleased at how these issues were successfully navigated by our team. Continued delivery across the group of our capital investment programme has shown significant efficiency gains. The resolution of some outstanding legacy contracts, combined with the delivery of high quality, large contracts in robust market sectors have all assisted in 2022 being a successful year for Billington.

"While being mindful of the uncertain economic outlook for the UK, we look forward to the remainder of 2023 with a strong orderbook and a pipeline of significant high quality prospects. We are confident in maintaining the momentum from 2022 and delivering another strong performance for our stakeholders, in line with current market expectations."

In March 2022 the group announced the formation of a new subsidiary, Specialist Protective Coatings Ltd, focused on surface preparation and the application of protective coatings for products across a variety of sectors including rail, highways, defence, petrochemical, energy, structural steel and infrastructure. The business was formed following the company's acquisition out of administration of the trading assets of Orrmac Coatings Limited, a specialist painting company based in Sheffield.

Related topics:UkraineSheffield