A host of successful projects over the last year have enabled Stepnell to boast a 12% annual increase in turnover.

Figures on the construction specialist in 2018/19 show a turnover of £164 million, up from £146m reported the previous year. The firm has also seen a 4% rise in gross profit over the same period.

Tom Wakeford, joint managing director of Stepnell Ltd said: "We welcome these results after a challenging year for the construction industry. The market remains mixed with a number of our competitors struggling, and as such a few projects had their challenges, particularly through terms and conditions that proved to be more onerous that expected and subcontractors going out of business.

"We remain cautiously optimistic that our revised business model, with a focus on lower risk terms and conditions, will hold us in good stead. Stepnell has a more diversified range of projects than ever before and this will position us to withstand market risks.

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"Strategically, Stepnell is using 2019/20 as a year of consolidation and looking at our customer base very carefully. We will continue to refine project selectivity this year, being cautious and signing up to the right commercial terms."

Over the last year, the company has worked on a number of key projects including the £10m Stepnell Park, West Walk Leicester student accommodation and a collection of Lidl stores.

Stepnell continues to manage successful framework projects for National Grid (Civil Engineering), Oxford Brookes University, Reading University, Crown Construction and Procure Partnerships and Dorset County Council.

Stepnell Limited's parent company Stepnell Holdings has also reported a steady set of results for the financial year ending 2018/19 with turnover up 7.41% from £156 to £168 million.

Tom Wakeford continued: "Because of the stability of Stepnell and the parent company, we know we have a robust future, despite the difficult climate. Our underlying performance is improving. We have a strong order book going forward and an increased the level of due diligence that we apply to each project that we consider, to enable us to make more robust decisions when choosing whether to bid for or decline individual opportunities. This has led to our current projects having had a greater level of scrutiny during the bid stage and before they are signed into contract and therefore more successful now that they are on site.

"We have appointed a new commercial director, John Green from Bouygues, who has been bought in to spearhead the continued development of our commercial strategy of being selective about the projects that we undertake and ensuring that we continue to deliver great projects for our clients."

(CM/MH)