A construction giant that has completed landmark buildings across Manchester has warned factors such as the rise in remote working will continue to impact its finances during its current year.
Manchester-headquartered Russells WBHO added "hesitancy" in the sector contributed to its turnover being slashed by almost £70m while its pre-tax profits were also hit.
However, the company said it expects its financial position to improve in the coming years.
READ MORE: Click here to sign up to the BusinessLive North West newsletter
Russells WBHO has worked on the likes of Axis Tower and Manchester One as well as the likes of The Towers in Didsbury and buildings for Aldi, Holiday Inn, Waitrose, Premier Inn, Travelodge, Asda, Morrisons and B&Q.
During the year to June 30, 2022, the company handed over the £76m, 33-storey Oxygen Towers in Ancoats, the 329-bed Clayton Hotel in Portland Street, 3 St Peter's Square, the £56m Motel One and Staycity in the city centre.
According to newly-filed accounts with Companies House, the firm's turnover was slashed from £123m to £55.2m in the year while its pre-tax profits went from £8m to £2.5m.
Its previous financial year had been described as the second best in its history.
Most Read
The company added that it is expecting its turnover to be over £60m in the 12 months to the end of June 2023 and pre-tax profits to be around the same level as 2022.
A statement signed off by the board said: "It has been a tale of two halves with unexpected and external factors impacting on revenue."
It added that there had been "significant reductions" in debtors to £21m, down from £38.6m, and creditors from £41m to £15.6m.
The first six months of the year saw the completion of over £165m worth of projects which the company said was the busiest and highest value handover period in its history.
The business said: "The second half of the year, however, revealed the impact of the hesitation which has entered into the market place due to the Covid-19 pandemic along with global geopolitical and economic issues resulting in progress being affected on over £150m worth of anticipated project starts.
"This reflects the national picture according to research from Glenigan which found a 23% increase in the time taken for projects to commence and the 'reappraisal' of costs to be behind an overall drop in 海角视频 construction revenue for the period.
"Reassuringly, however, several of those delayed projects are now making significant progress and are expected to generate turnover in the 2023 year.
Don’t miss
"As the company marks its 25th anniversary, we expect the order book to recover significantly over the next 12-24 months.
"The forward pipeline is extremely positive and, over the last 12 months, Russells has been asked to deliver more pre-qualification questionnaires, bids and tenders than at any time in the company's history. The team is currently awaiting decisions on more than £250m of tendered contracts."
On its results, the company added: "Whilst down on the previous years, profits of £2.5m are a significant achievement when reviewing the current marketplace and are in excess of many of our immediate competitors.
"The first half of the year contributed a large majority of the turnover and this imbalance was due to the completion of several major schemes in the early period and the subsequent impact of the delayed start of a number of schemes which would have generated turnover in the second period.
"Our analysis has found that this came down to two main factors: funders' re-evaluation of project viability due to the outcomes from the Covid-19 pandemic, for example office development put on hold due to the rise in remote working; and significant re-costing exercises required due to materials price and energy cost increases.
"We understand the hesitancy these considerations have causes in the marketplace and expect it will continue to have an impact on our results in the 2023/33 financial year, where after we expect to see turnover beginning to grow.
"We also recognise that the surge in revenue growth over the last three years was due mainly to the commensurate delivery of our three highest schemes to date, and with the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the global economy a reduction in overall turnover was to be expected at the completion of those three projects."
READ MORE: