HARRY POTTER BUILDERS POCKET £8m
THE family-owned builders behind the Harry Potter studio have cashed in on booming construction demand with a bumper dividend.
Bowmer & Kirkland, owned by the co-founding Kirkland family, paid out £7.8m last year, up from £4.6m a year earlier, according to accounts filed at Companies House. It was thanks to an ‘excellent year’ in its house-building company, which drove a 10pc jump in turnover to £931m. Profits were up 50pc to £61.5m.
Bowmer & Kirkland was founded in 1923 by bricklayer Robert Kirkland and joiner Alfred Bowmer.
It also built the £60m Warner Bros studio which exhibits the sets and thousands of artefacts used in the blockbuster films.
Today the company is chaired by John Kirkland, a descendant of the founder, while other members of the Kirkland family sit on the board.