The family-owned business, which celebrated its 125th anniversary last year, secured £2.8bn of new work during 2022 to build a record order book worth £8.35bn.
Despite economic headwinds, Wates saw order book and profit up across every one of its divisions. It ended the year with £153m of net cash, with a £90m undrawn bank facility.
Construction turnover was up 24% to £958m and the construction order book stood at £4.5bn at year-end. This was not just down to inflation, since most of the work was booked before inflation took off. Wates is also taking on larger construction projects than in the recent past, such as the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, which hosted the swimming events of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The construction division also completed more than £100m of work last year on its largest-ever construction project, the £500m Envision AESC Gigafactory in Sunderland, where batteries for electric vehicles will be made. The average project size in 2022 was around £43m, a new high for Wates Construction.
Turnover in Wates’ residential business increased by 16% to £310m during 2022 and the developments division turned over £123m.
Wates’ property services division increased turnover across its three businesses to £499m, with a forward order book of £1.9bn.
Chief financial officer Philip Wainwright, who was interim chief executive after the departure of David Allen last summer until the arrival of Eoghan O’Lionaird in February, said: “We navigated 2022 well with high profitability of £33.7m profit before tax, net cash of £153m, financial resilience and a record forward order book of £8.35bn. This represents strong performance in the context of the challenging economic environment with all of our major divisions contributing strongly to profitability, a consistency borne out of our shared commitments. It also builds upon the profits we delivered in every year through Covid and the outstanding financial results in 2021.”
He continued: “2022 saw us continue our upward trajectory on turnover, reaching £1.89bn – the highest in our history. While an untrammelled race for turnover has never been our intention, this high figure reflects the scale of our ambition, of our proven capacity to manage projects of strategic national significance, and of our customers’ confidence in our ability to do so, particularly in the public sector.
“Ongoing financial resilience was also maintained within these strong underlying results; an order book that increased £1.2bn during the year; an undrawn £90m bank facility; access to significant investments on the balance sheet and a strong cash balance. The underlying tangible net worth of our business, excluding intangible assets, is well in excess of most of our peers, and this allowed us to increase the investments within our business.”
New chief executive Eoghan O’Lionaird said: “We are in a strong, resilient position, with profitability across all our divisions, another record forward order book, and a solid cash balance. These results are a testament to the efforts of everyone at Wates, and my particular thanks go to Philip Wainwright for his sterling performance as interim chief executive. He has left a firm foundation from which I hope to continue growing this remarkable business.”
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