Rok Property Solutions says focus on developing, building and maintenance will boost profits in 2005.
ROK Property Solutions increased pre-tax profit by 2% despite suffering a £4.1m loss through the closure of its Spaceage components division. Turnover increased 30% to £494.5m for the year ended 31 December 2004.
Rok closed the Poole business following an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer. Operating losses for the division were £1.1m and, including other costs of closure, the total impact in 2004 was a loss of £4.1m.
The property services company is now focused on three divisions. The construction and building division incresed turnover by 34% to £402.1m and operating profits by 1% to £8.9m. This included the acquisition of contracts from Ballast and the purchase of John Dickies Construction in July 2004.
Rokforce, the Group's premium maintenance business, grew turnover by 20% to £27.1m. Rok said that significant invesetment in IT systems, training and a new call centre facility meant operating profit rose only 4% to £1.6m. Rok said the new IT systems would enable it to grow significantly in the current year
Property development arm Rokeagle increased its turnover by 19% to £60.3m and operating profits by 36% to £9.0m on a turnover of £60.3m.
Chairman Bob Carlton-Porter said: “Over the last year, much of the continued growth in turnover and profits from our core businesses has been achieved organically as we focussed on investing in the people, systems and processes to support the group during its next phase of growth.”
“The focus is now firmly on the core businesses that are well established and poised for growth in a market where demand remains strong for the foreseeable future.”
