Delayed starts sees McLaughlin & Harvey income fall one third

McLaughlin & Harvey has warned that clients taking longer to make decisions will again see turnover hit this year after the firm’s income fell 30% in the 12 months to June.

The Northern Irish contractor said revenue during the period fell to £612m from £870m and, in a note accompanying its accounts now filed at Companies House, added: “It is notable that the industry as a whole is seeing a general prolonging of the procurement process which is resulting in many opportunities taking longer to commence works on site. As a result of this, reported turnover for the 2024/25 year is down on that of the prior year.”

And it warned: “The directors expect turnover in the forthcoming year to be impacted in a similar way as the commencement of a number of scale projects which might have been expected to have commenced by now, are delayed until the mid to latter stages of the 2025/26 financial year.”

But pre-tax profit was up by half to £18m despite the firm’s waste management business, Barr Environmental, staying in the red with a pre-tax loss of £1.4m – although this was down on the £2.1m loss it racked up last time.

Construction is the firm’s biggest business with revenue of £579m, a fall of 30% on 2024, with its environment business adding £2m of turnover – down from £9m last time – while a distribution business had sales of £33.5m, down 8% on the previous year.

M&H, which has 834 staff, said its cash balance at the year-end edged up to £148m from £147m last time.