Tilbury Douglas hopes to grow its orderbook to £2bn, its new chief executive has said after reporting rise in turnover and profits last year.
In the company’s newly released annual report for the year ending 31 December 2024, the group reported a £541.6m turnover, up from £507.2m the previous year.
Pre-tax profit also rose, to £11.98m from £5.8m in 2023.
It said its order book at the end of 2024 stood at £1.3bn.
Tilbury Douglas chief executive Craig Tatton said the group would aim high under a refreshed future strategy.
“Our objective is to become the leading contractor in our chosen sectors by 2029, recognised by stakeholders for the quality and consistency of our project delivery and value creation,” he said.
“We plan to have an order book of £2bn, sector-leading net promoter scores and net margins of 3.5 per cent by 2029.”
Its overall pre-tax margin stood at 2.2 per cent in 2024.
The contractor was formerly one of the largest arms of the £3.2bn-turnover Interserve plc before it was spun off from the plc’s successor company Interserve Group in June 2022. Interserve trustees still own a significant part of the company.
Tatton, who was previously chief operating officer since 2022, took over as chief executive in November.
Its largest area of activity in 2024 was in regional building and fit-out, which generated revenue of £436.2m with a gross margin of 9 per cent. The division’s turnover was up from £424.5m in 2023.
Some 90 per cent of the group’s overall revenue comes from long-term frameworks for repeat clients, with most of its work within the education, health, justice, defence and water sectors.
Tatton said its improved performance was achieved by focusing on public and regulated sectors that are low-risk and provide long-term stability.
The Labour government’s priority investment areas – which include schools, health, defence and justice – are all areas where the group is well-positioned, he added.
Tilbury Douglas chair Nick Pollard added that those sectors and the water industry are “areas which provide long-term opportunities with intelligent clients: aligning procurement routes that value social and environmental benefit alongside price, while also removing unnecessary risk, from both contractor and client”.
“These sectors offer a strong foundation and enable us to build lasting partnerships,” he said.
Construction News revealed last year that Tilbury Douglas was the 10th biggest supplier to the Ministry of Justice in 2023/24, being paid £16.5m by the government department in the period. Other wins in 2024 included an extension of its place on the £100m North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium universities framework.
The company grew its cash pile to £50.7m from £42.3m during 2024.
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Ian Weinfass