Costain turnover breaks through £1bn barrier
ENGINEERING and construction giant Costain, which recently announced the opening of its first North-east office at Stockton, said it was looking to the future “with confidence” as annual revenues broke through the £1bn barrier for the first time in 16 years.
Turnover during 2009 climbed from £1.06bn from £996m with the group also announcing a record year-end forward order book of £2.6bn - up by a third on 2008.
Pre-tax profits for 2009 fell to £18.1m from £23.1m 12 months earlier, which was blamed on poor returns on cash deposits.
Costain announced earlier this month it would move into Teesside, creating 30 jobs. It said it had been attracted by the region’s strong energy and process industry cluster and the availability of highly skilled workers and hinted there would be more investment to come.
Commenting on today’s results, Costain chairman David Allvey said: “This was an excellent overall operational performance. Once again, the group has demonstrated its resilience in a difficult economic environment. With a record year-end order book, a significant amount of work already secured for 2010, a net cash balance of over £120m and customers committed to long-term capital investment programmes, Costain is looking to the future with confidence.”
Costain’s chief executive Andrew Wyllie said over the next decade there would be three growth markets - infrastructure, environment and energy and process - including nuclear, power, hydrocarbons and chemicals.
