Demolition specialist expects turnover to approaching pre-pandemic level this year

Demolition specialist McGee has said it expects turnover this year to recover to pre-pandemic levels after its income and profit last year were ravaged by the covid-19 crisis.

The firm, which completed a switch to an employee ownership model during the period and is headed up by group managing director Seb Fossey, said revenue slipped 30% to £76m with pre-tax profit sinking 85% to £1.2m in the year to November.

bankside yards

The firm has been working on the Bankside Yards scheme

Accounts now filed at Companies House show it claimed nearly £1m from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, adding it stopped using the initiative in November last year.

McGee, which is working on the Bankside Yards mixed-use scheme at the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge, said initiatives to preserve cash at the height of the pandemic included its senior leadership taking pay cuts of 50%, temporary salary cuts for off-site staff and securing a £5m overdraft with its bank HSBC – although the firm said it had not used it and did not expect to.

The firm, which is branching out from its traditional demolition roots into specialist engineering, said it remained debt free.