builder Galliford Try has said the Scottish construction market remains strong and hailed the benefits of the recent acquisition of the Miller Construction business.
Announcing record results, the Middlesex-based firm said it has a strong pipeline in Scotland where its construction arm is working on a range of high value public-sector projects.
These include a £26 million project to design and construct the new Clyde Valley schools campus in Wishaw and the £41m redevelopment of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
The company is in a consortium that was chosen to build the £745m Aberdeen bypass.
The head of its construction division, Ken Gillespie, said: "It's looking very positive for us in Scotland."
Mr Gillespie said Galliford regarded tomorrow's referendum on independence as a matter for the Scottish people. He noted: "Regardless of how people vote we think we will continue to have a strong presence in Scotland."
In recent results announcements, Galliford Try has said the construction market has remained stronger in Scotland than south of the Border, helped by the Scottish Government maintaining spending on building projects.
Mr Gillespie said the position has started to change. "We are seeing a substantial pick up in activity south of the border," he said, noting that increased public spending and the economic recovery were driving the upturn.
While Galliford has recorded strong growth in its housebuilding business in England, Mr Gillespie said the company has no plans to enter the market in Scotland. He said: "In terms of profitability and effort we can do less and make more money in the south."
Mr Gillespie said the acquisition of the construction arm of Edinburgh-based Miller in July would result in a big increase in Galliford's presence in the Scottish market. He expects the acquisition to help grow Galliford Try's construction turnover in Scotland to £350m in the current financial year, from £203m in the 12 months to June. He expects group construction turnover to increase to £1.25bn from £832m.
In July Galliford agreed to pay £16.57m for Miller Construction but also get a £23m cash balance to go along with it.
Galliford increased their group profits before tax by 28 per cent, or £21.1m, to £95.2m in the year to June, from £74.1m in the preceding year.
Galliford said the UK Government's Help to Buy scheme, an easing in mortgage availability and growing consumer confidence were all helping to boost the housebuilding market south of the Border but the rate of house price increases appears to be moderating to more sustainable levels.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article