Mouchel’s order book at the end of May stood at £1.5bn, compared with £1.9bn at the same time last year.
The company said that the short-term outlook continued to be very challenging and it anticipated no significant improvement in trading conditions in the short-term.
In a trading statement to the City this morning, Mouchel said: “The overall level of bidding activity has been lower than in previous periods and our ability to secure new orders was adversely impacted by the Offer Period which ran from December 2010 to April 2011. This means, as previously reported, that the group's win rate in the current financial year will be below our target range. “
It added that spending cuts were also impacting on its local authority client base, which accounts for more than two thirds of its business.
However, it has managed to secure nearly £200m of new contracts and extensions in the year to date.
These include the £57m National Traffic Information Service (NTIS) contract, in joint venture with Thales UK, for the Highways Agency.
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It has also picked up highway maintenance work in Australia, in joint venture with Downer, and highway design work in Saudi Arabia.
“Whilst lower than in the past, the order book provides excellent visibility of the group's forward workload and we are making progress in rebuilding momentum,” the company said.
The value of work for which Mouchel has been shortlisted, together with potential contract extensions, stands at £2bn, unchanged for the past year, although it is now seeing a rise in opportunities, it said.
In joint venture with Carillion, it is down to the last two bidders for the Sheffield PFI highways maintenance contract, worth £2bn to the JV over 25 years. It is also bidding for highway maintenance contracts in Scotland and has recently been short-listed for the HA's Asset Support Contract (ASC) for Area 10 in the north-west of England.
Costs have been cut by shedding staff and offices and the company has now been “right sized”.
It concluded: “We remain confident in the medium and long-term prospects for the group.”
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