PJ Carey (Contractors) Ltd made a pre-tax loss of £48.0m in the year to 30th September 2022 on turnover of £274.3m (2021: £239.6m).
Carey Group, which includes the drylining business BDL, just about kept its head above water, making a £1,000 pre-tax profit, but with a £305,000 tax bill the bottom line after tax was a £304,000 loss.
For parent company Araglin Holdings, however, it was a different story, thanks to the reach of the Carey family’s business and property interests. It made a pre-tax profit of £42.8m (2021: £16.1m) on turnover of £336.3m (2021: £346.9m).
Executive chair Fiona O’Donnell writes in the Araglin annual report: “The year has been a turbulent one with continued challenges; the war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures, the energy and cost of living crises. The group has worked tirelessly to mitigate these risks impacting our projects buy working proactively with our clients and supply chain. The resulting loss after tax of £35m for our contracting division is disappointing but opportunities within our property division have realised a positive set of results, with a profit after tax of £65m, a testament to the long-term strategy of the group.
“As 30 September 2022 the group has net assets of £157m, which included £72m of real estate and £73m of gross cash.
“Decisive actions have been taken and we have worked hard to protect ourselves from continued inflationary pressures. Looking forward, we are well positioned and current trading shows the contracting business returning to profitability and we continue to move forward with confidence.”
She continued: “We have a strong order book of secured future contract revenue of over £600m and we are well capitalised.”
Carey Group began in 1969 when brothers John, Tom and Pat Carey moved to London from Ireland in their van and started a groundworks contracting company called PJ Carey Plant Hire (Oval) Ltd. It remains a family business. Executive chair Fiona O’Donnell is John Carey’s daughter; Tom’s son Tommy Carey is chief operating officer; and Pat’s son Jason is chief executive.
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