DUNDEE-BASED GA Engineering has cited the downturn in activity in the oil and gas sector due to the low price of Brent Crude as it recorded a loss in its latest accounts.
The precision engineering company, which is focused on the oil and gas industry, booked a pre-tax loss of £1.5 million in the year ended March 31. It made a £1m profit the year before.
In new accounts at Companies House, GA revealed it has reduced its headcount by 17 since year-end year as it looks to reduce costs, while also working to open new markets.
The firm, which said the cuts led to short-term redundancy costs, had an average of 58 staff in the period covered by its latest accounts, down from 65 the year before.
GA slipped to a loss as its turnover tumbled to £3.4m from £6.6m in the year ended March 31.
Writing in the account, the directors trace the fall in revenue to “increased pricing pressure and significantly reduced average quantities on each order”, while stating the number of quotes and orders process “remained at similar levels to prior years” over the period. They warn difficult conditions were likely to persist in the firm’s current financial year.
“While there are signs of the oil and gas market improving given the oil price is over 50 per cent higher compared to the low price set in January 2016, the directors expect the general level of activity to decrease further in the forthcoming year as this takes time to filter through to demand for its services,” the directors state.
“This might, in the short term, outweigh the effects of the actions being undertaken by the company to expand into other industrial sectors, capitalise on opportunities that arise in conjunction with the increased range of services offered by the group and further cost reductions.”
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 here