Mears provides building maintenance, repairs and other services to the social housing and care sectors. In November 2012 it bought loss-making Morrison Facilities Services from Anglian Water Group for £24m and appears to have turned it around.
For the year to 31 December 2013, Mears Group made a pre-tax profit of £36.6m, up 26% on the 2012’s £29.0m, on group revenue up 32% to £898.2m (2012: £679.5m).
The results meant the company was well placed to swallow the £18.5m loss taken on the sale of the Haydon Mechanical & Electrical subsidiary, sold to the management team for £1 in November 2013. This loss was planned for, and part of the company’s market repositioning.
Mears’ social housing division booked revenue up 47% to £742.5m (2012: £504.7m). The operating margin of 4.5% was ahead of the 4.3% target but down on 2012’s 4.7%, diluted slightly by Morrison activities.
Chief executive David Miles said: "I am delighted with the progress Mears has made in 2013. Revenue visibility, order book and the bid pipeline all remain strong.
"Our Social Housing business has long been recognised as the market leader in terms of operational performance and customer satisfaction. I believe that the opportunities for us in Social Housing remain very strong.
"In Care, as a robust high quality provider at the forefront of change in the sector, we remain very well placed strategically to take advantage of the long term opportunities. The ageing population and the fundamental desire of people to stay in their own homes remain the foundations for this sector. Economic necessity is, of course, the third driver, which has led to significant political activity.
"With Mears now focused solely on Social Housing and Care, I am delighted to report that we continue to achieve high levels of service delivery and customer satisfaction. The quality of our service delivery continues to be our key differentiator and underpins our success in bidding new contracts in both of our core growth sectors.
"Since the turn of the year, trading remains in line with expectations."
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