Construction company Henry Boot posted record full-year profits on Tuesday but cautioned that 2023 looked set to be a somewhat more difficult proposition.
Henry Boot said pre-tax profits hit £45.6m, up from £35.1m in the prior year, as turnover surged to £341.4m from £230.6m on the back of record sales of 3,869 plots of land from a bank of 96,000 plots.
Construction turnover hit £100.5m, up from £86.2m, while operating profits rose from £9.0m to £12.1m.
Chief executive Tim Roberts stated Henry Boot’s construction unit had performance “remarkably well” and traded ahead of expectations despite being forced to navigate challenging supply and labour restrictions.
However, Henry Boot stated it was now expecting the new year to be tougher than 2022 but noted that it was confident that its “rock solid balance sheet” will offer resilience in the case of further economic uncertainty and help it take advantage of any opportunities that may arise as a result.
Roberts said: “With early encouraging indicators already evident across certain markets we have the capacity to buy land, maintain and potentially expand our committed development programme as well as to continue to grow our JV housebuilder as soon as we feel economic recovery is on the way.
“We therefore have confidence in our ability to achieve our medium-term growth and return targets.”
As of 1105 GMT, Henry Boot shares were up 2.68% at 230.0p.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
