Morris & Spottiswood build bright future despite a fall in turnover

Morris & Spottiswood, one of Scotland’s largest construction services companies, improved profitability last year despite a sharp fall in turnover as customers cut back on property spending.

The performance enabled the Glasgow-based firm to pay a dividend of £2.5 million to the family which owns the company, four times higher than the dividend in 2009.

Directors of the company, which employs more than 400 staff in office and shop-fitting work, housing and maintenance, said it had achieved “another solid financial performance” despite the economic uncertainty.

It said the cost-cutting measures taken in 2009, which had included redundancies, had enabled the company to avoid any further layoffs during 2010.

Turnover fell by just over 15 per cent to £84.7m from £99.9m, blamed on customers continuing to “critically review their property- related spending”.

Pre-tax profits were £309,523, down on the £315,313 achieved in 2009 but representing a higher percentage of turnover.

The £2.49m dividend payment made to family shareholders was up from £631,579 in 2009 but the highest-paid director saw their pay package more than halve to £236,869 from £589,908.

The company, which also has bases in Edinburgh and Warrington, said it remained in a strong financial position with no borrowing or external investment which enabled it to make plan for the longer term “without being pressured into short term targets”.

“Robust financial health gives the directors confidence that the company has flexibility in current markets that continue to be uncertain and seem to offer the prospects of only slow recovery,” the group said.

The company said its year-end net cash position of £8.7m, down by £203,000 on 2009, highlighted a continued focus on cash management within the business.

Morris & Spottiswood provides services to the retail, banking, commercial, education, healthcare, and public sectors across Scotland and northern England.

Established in 1925, it is now the UK’s sixth-largest retail fit-out specialist. It also has a portfolio of affordable housing projects arising from partnering agreements with local housing organisations.

High-profile projects it has been involved in across Scotland over recent months including the Stirling Palace restoration and the refurbishment of Princes Square in Glasgow.

The company has also won maintenance contracts for Strathclyde Police and the University of Glasgow and is currently carrying out new-build projects for Queen’s Cross Housing Association. It also fitted out Amazon’s new offices at Waverley Gate on Princes Street in Edinburgh.

In June NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde awarded a £1m contract to the firm’s laboratory equipment arm Assab.