{"id":838884,"date":"2025-04-04T08:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/04\/kilnbridge-blames-hs2-cutback-as-profit-and-revenue-plummet\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T08:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:11:36","slug":"kilnbridge-blames-hs2-cutback-as-profit-and-revenue-plummet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/04\/kilnbridge-blames-hs2-cutback-as-profit-and-revenue-plummet\/","title":{"rendered":"Kilnbridge blames HS2 cutback as profit and revenue plummet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Colne-Valley-Viaduct_HS21.jpg\"<\/p>\n

An HS2 tunnel boring machine<\/p>\n

\n

The government\u2019s decision to scale back the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project has hit Kilnbridge\u2019s bottom line, the specialist contractor has revealed in its latest accounts.<\/p>\n

The East London-based building and civils contractor posted turnover of \u00a385.9m for the 12 months to 30 June 2024.<\/p>\n

This was down 28 per cent from the prior year\u2019s \u00a3120.1m, when turnover grew by 23 per cent.<\/p>\n

Kilnbridge executive chairman Dermot McDermott said the business was \u201cimpacted somewhat by the cancellation of the Northern and the Euston leg of HS2\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak announced the cancellation of the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 in October 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Conservative government planned Old Oak Common as a temporary London terminus<\/a> for the line before it would have made a final decision whether to terminate at Euston, as originally planned.<\/p>\n

But last October, Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed HS2 would reach Euston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kilnbridge finished ninth in last year\u2019s CN Specialists Index for concrete contractors<\/a>\u00a0and became an employee-owned trust in March 2021.<\/p>\n

Its latest accounts showed its pre-tax profit more than halved from \u00a33.8m to \u00a31.5m.<\/p>\n

As a result, the firm\u2019s margin narrowed from 3.2 per cent the previous year to 1.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

But McDermott said that \u201cprudent financial management ensured we maintained a strong balance sheet, positioning us well to pursue tender opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the firm\u2019s secured order book reached a record \u00a3200m at the end of its financial year.<\/p>\n

And it increased its cash holdings by \u00a33m to \u00a310.4m, while remaining free of bank loan debt.<\/p>\n

However, the firm paid out dividends of just \u00a31.8m last year compared with \u00a36m the year before.<\/p>\n

McDermott said the year to 30 June 2024 had been \u201ctransformative\u201d for Kilnbridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe announced a significant transition in our leadership team in May [2024],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

McDermott himself stepped back from the chief executive role, 33 years after founding the company, to be replaced by Owen Dannatt, former chief operating officer at Shard developer Sellar.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Tom Sullivan was appointed as chief operating officer and executive board director, responsible for managing risk and all internal operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Owen joined we have been reviewing the company\u2019s structure and making changes that affect how our business is governed,\u201d said McDermott in a report accompanying the latest results. \u201cThis work is still in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contractor\u2019s average monthly headcount dipped slightly from 353 to 343 employees in the most recent period.<\/p>\n

Its annual wage bill also fell from \u00a325.6m to \u00a325.2m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Greg Pitcher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An HS2 tunnel boring machine The government\u2019s decision to scale back the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project has hit Kilnbridge\u2019s bottom line, the specialist contractor has revealed in its latest accounts. The East London-based building and civils contractor posted turnover of \u00a385.9m for the 12 months to 30 June 2024. This was down 28<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2566,134193],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-838884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blames","8":"category-kilnbridge"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}