Positive trading performance by Spencer Group in challenging times

EXPERTS: Spencer Group engineers on the Menai Suspension Bridge

Engineering business Spencer Group delivered a positive trading performance in its latest published accounts, reporting turnover of £42m and a pre-tax profit of £500,000 despite challenging market conditions due to the pandemic.

Covid-driven site closures in the early part of the business year resulted in very low operating levels with restrictive working practices during lockdown causing delays on several projects and the postponement of a number of newly-secured contracts.

However, the company continues to deliver high-quality engineering solutions for its blue-chip client base in the rail, bridges and the industrial sectors, delivering a number of critical infrastructure projects.

The business entered the current financial year with an order book of secured work totalling £53m and a strong pipeline of opportunities, according to the accounts for the year ended 31st March, 2021.

Since the previous business year end, the company has resolved an ongoing dispute, securing a £3.8m cash injection for works previously undertaken. This has provided a major boost to funds, enhancing working capital reserves and overall liquidity. 

Charlie Spencer OBE, founder and Executive Chairman of the Hull-based business, said: “Given the difficult circumstances over the past 18 months as a result of the pandemic, this is a positive set of results and our staff are to be commended for their efforts and commitment in what has been a very challenging period.

“We are now in the happy position of recruiting new staff to service our increasing order book.

“Despite the pandemic we have continued to recruit apprentices, primarily from Ron Dearing University Technical College in Hull, to join our apprenticeship programme and I am delighted to say this is having a fantastic impact on the business.

“While we will always seek to add quality people to our existing team and are currently recruiting to support our expansion, we firmly believe in growing our own engineers and leaders of the future and see the high-level apprenticeship route as being pivotal to this strategy.”