Results: Accommodation leads way for Jarvis

Jarvis group's strongest growth area over the past year was in the PFI-related accommodation services area, an improvement that group finance director Robert Kendall said he had expected as facilities management moved into 'a more mature phase'.

Accommodation services were up 36 per cent to £236.3m and accounted for 35 per cent of the total turnover — up five per cent from last year. With an accommodation services forward order book, including preferred bidder tenders, now at £2.7bn, an increase of 42 per cent from last year, the group expects profits to increase.

On 12 June, Jarvis announced that the group's turnover for the year ended 31 March was up 17 per cent to £676.8m, with a pre-tax profit of £30.1mm — down £900,000.

Jarvis group's chief executive Paris Moayedi said the company is positioned to profit from the government's policies on PFI, which he believes are key to Jarvis' growth.

Moayedi also noted that Jarvis, which now has 54 PFI schools, is a leader in PFI school and university projects. The company is also the preferred bidder for another 24 schools.

Going forward, Henry Lafferty, chief executive accommodation services, said that the company would be looking at Ministry of Defence contracts. In addition to the 1,600 bed unit contract for NCO new recruits in Harrogate the company is looking at others on Salisbury Plain, and in Aldershot and Connaught.

In the health sector, Lafferty said he believed the way forward was to tender for smaller hospital units and spread coverage to achieve 'critical mass'.

Jarvis also plans to extend into PFI road and rail markets as well as into Europe — specifically Estonia, the Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Italy and Peru.

'The Jarvis Strategy is to concentrate on sectors less exposed to the uncertainties of economic cycles, such as education and transport,' said Moayedi.

He also said Jarvis is considering abandoning Odyssey, its 'corporate PFI' joint venture with investment bank UBS Warburg, because it had failed to win any contracts since it was established 14 months ago. Odyssey chief executive Barry Lucas quit in March this year.