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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFit-out work surpassed construction for the first time after booking a record year with a mix of both large London commercial jobs and smaller orders for the below 50,000 sq ft sector through its specialist Agility business.<\/p>\n
Construction’s performance was dampened by the southern region, which fell short of revenue target for the year, due to project delays. But the other two divisions Western; and northern England\/Scotland performed well on the back of public sector work wins, lifting divisional revenue by 8% to \u00a3520m.<\/p>\n
Despite growing concern in the market about future building workloads, ISG said it entered the year with a forward construction order book up 22% to nearly \u00a3500m.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nCossell said: “Set against the wider sector backdrop of high-profile corporate failure and reversing financial performance for many UK-based main contractors, ISG\u2019s record results demonstrate the efficacy of our technology and specialism-led approach.<\/p>\n
He added that ISG had won some of its biggest projects across its core sectors including offices, technology, science and health, and education.<\/p>\n
Also for the first time, it delivered significant projects in the logistics and distribution sector for clients including a major internet-based retailer.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead Cossell said construction would focus on retaining repeat business and increasing project sizes. He said the firm was aiming to improve margin to 2% this year with a long term ain of 4% by 2024.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe bumper year saw ISG, which now employs 2,800 staff worldwide, boost its net cash to \u00a377m from \u00a364m previously.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
ISG operating divisions<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n| <\/td>\n | Revenue<\/td>\n | change<\/td>\n | Underlying profit<\/td>\n | change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | UK fit-out<\/td>\n | \u00a3609m<\/td>\n | 54%<\/td>\n | \u00a310.5m<\/td>\n | 61%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | UK construction<\/td>\n | \u00a3520m<\/td>\n | 8%<\/td>\n | \u00a35.7m<\/td>\n | -16%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Engineering services<\/td>\n | \u00a3469m<\/td>\n | 60%<\/td>\n | \u00a311.7m<\/td>\n | 67%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | UK retail<\/td>\n | \u00a3322m<\/td>\n | 22%<\/td>\n | \u00a35.7m<\/td>\n | 26%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | Overseas<\/td>\n | \u00a3317m<\/td>\n | 15%<\/td>\n | \u00a34.9m<\/td>\n | 44%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | The engineering services division, which delivers highly-engineering projects across the technology, science and health, and education and public sectors, contributed the biggest rise in profit across the group.<\/p>\n Much of this was driven by European data centre work and also UK\u00a0university and pharma projects.<\/p>\n Cossell said he expected further improvement to division’s business performance in 2019 on the back of a forward order book up over a third to \u00a3430m compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n \n |
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