Edinburgh-headquartered construction giant Cruden Group cements another profitable year

Edinburgh-headquartered development and construction giant the Cruden Group has unveiled its 23rd consecutive year of profitable trading, with a major jump in its bottom-line-performance, and highlighted its bullish outlook despite the uncertain economic backdrop.

The organisation, which was founded in 1943 and says it builds nearly one in 15 homes built in Scotland, has revealed that in the 12 months ending March 31, it saw total turnover increase by 29 per cent to £247.4 million and pre-tax profit increase by more than 16 times to £4.9m from £300,000.

Cruden also said it has secured a “solid” forward pipeline of work, both in house-building and construction, and has enjoyed sustained high demand for new-build housing, for private sale, from housing associations and local authorities, and from build-to-rent clients. It also said its Cruden Building division was appointed to three separate multi-million-pound public sector procurement frameworks to address local housing challenges across Scotland.

The group includes housebuilding unit Cruden Homes, and it has seen private housing sales rise to 174 homes from 159 in 2021, and a 40 per cent increase in average sales value to £314,000, attributed to the mix of units settling, including various luxury housing developments.

Additionally, the group said it had net assets of £50.4m and cash reserves of just above that at year-end, and boasts a 600-strong workforce. Cruden, which earlier this year merged its construction businesses in Scotland’s Central Belt, also stated that it is delivering the design for two major net-zero housing developments in Edinburgh at Silverlea and Fountainbridge, and is building what it says is Scotland’s first social housing development to Passivhaus standard in Drymen. This year, the firm continued, saw it appointed preferred bidder to progress the first phase of the £1.3 billion regeneration at Granton Waterfront.

Cruden Group chief executive Kevin Reid said: “The business and our employees have shown great resilience and adaptability... and we have made good progress this year to deliver an improved set of financial results. We have secured a solid forward order book, with public sector clients, and have the capacity to expand our housebuilding activities as market conditions allow.

“We have to recognise the challenges posed by ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, but we remain optimistic about our future and anticipate that we can maintain activity levels in the period to March 2023.”