Housebuilder Mactaggart & Mickel widens horizons

Glasgow-based housebuilder Mactaggart & Mickel Group has posted its fourth consecutive year of rising profits as it stressed its continued expansion in England, with plans to open an office south of the Border.

Ed Monaghan, chief executive of Glasgow-based Mactaggart & Mickel. Picture: Contributed

Pre-tax profits in the year ending 30 April grew 7.1 per cent to £10.4m while turnover fell 4.2 per cent to £65.1 million. Sales rose in the group’s flagship homes division to £55m from £48.5m, but fell in its contracts operations to £2.6m from £10.4m on “a change in focus in the year to concentrate on maximising value from group-owned sites and the completion of the Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village retrofit”.

Ed Monaghan, chief executive of Mactaggart & Mickel, said that while the reporting period came before June’s Brexit vote customer appetite since has stayed resilient. “People have been interested in the homes we’re building and the locations we’re building them in,” he said.

Monaghan added that the year to April was the last in its five-year plan, which had “delivered steady growth, consolidated by this year’s significant upturn in profit”.

Part of that plan was building south of the Border, with profits from its first English land sale amounting to £600,000.

Monaghan said: “We have chosen two sites in the south of England for development by our homes division, with more to follow. This marks a major milestone for the business, and helps fulfil our long-term ambition to expand, taking advantage of wider opportunities for growth.”

But he added that the group, which has 240 staff, is still “very much” committed to Scotland, having recently signed a new ten-year lease on its Atlantic Quay headquarters.

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