The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Breedon profits plunge as lockdown takes toll
Leading construction materials group Breedon yesterday revealed that annual profits had plunged by nearly 50% as the impact of coronavirus hit it hard.
The nationwide company, which has its Scottish HQ in Angus, suffered after the March lockdown effectively brought the UK and Irish construction industries to a halt for the better part of two months.
Breedon has now reported that its pre-tax profits for 2020 dived to £48.1 million, compared to £94.6m for 2019.
However, annual revenues were almost static at £928.7m compared to £929.6m previously.
Chief executive Pat Ward said: “The pandemic brought unprecedented pressures to bear on the group in 2020 which demanded an exceptional response from everyone in our business, and I would like to say thank you to all our stakeholders for their support during a difficult year.
“Most especially, I would like to thank our colleagues who have worked tirelessly and enabled us to recover strongly in the second half to deliver a very creditable outcome for the year.
“Although we remain mindful of the ongoing impact of Covid-19, with the worst of the pandemic now hopefully behind us and some welcome clarity on Brexit, I believe the prospects for Breedon and for our industry are increasingly positive.
“With robust commitments from the UK and Irish governments to infrastructure investment and continuing long-term demand for housing, forecasters are expecting this year and next to see steady growth in demand for our products in both countries.”
Breedon employs around 3,500 people at around 350 sites in Britain and Ireland.
It operates two cement plants and an extensive network of quarries, asphalt plants and ready-mixed concrete plants, together with slate production, concrete and clay products manufacturing, contract surfacing and highway maintenance operations.
The group’s strategy is to continue growing through organic improvement and the acquisition of businesses in the heavyside construction materials market.
At the start of last year Breedon announced a £178m deal with Cemex.
It planned to take over a variety of Cemex assets, including 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries, four depots, one cement terminal, 14 asphalt plants and four concrete products operations.
Nearly 20 of the facilities were in Scotland, where Breedon already had a strong presence.
However, the Cemex acquisition did face a hurdle raised by the Competition and Markets Authority.
The CMA found that the deal gave rise to competition concerns in relation to the supply of ready-mixed concrete, nonspecialist aggregates or asphalt in 15 local markets across the UK.
It added that the Breedon-Cemex merger could have made it easier for cement suppliers in the east of Scotland to align their behaviour, without necessarily entering into any express agreement or direct communication, in a way that limited the rivalry between them.
Breedon subsequently announced a £12.2m deal with Tillicoultry Quarries to address the CMA’s competition concerns.
It also allowed the Fife firm to expand its operations on both sides of the border.
The 14 sites which went to Tillicoultry included two sand and gravel quarries in Collessie and Loanleven, plus a cement terminal in Dundee. These three Scottish sites employed around a dozen people.
Derek Allan is a silversmith and jeweller who runs BlueRoc Design in Pitlochry.
Q. How and why did you start in business?
A. It depends on where “start” is… outwith the corporate world I have had a number of businesses which I have started and run, from a babywear retail shop, a marketing and advertising company in the Middle East, to an event development and production consultancy. My current enterprise and passion is BlueRoc Design jewellery.
Q. How did you get to where you are today?
A. About six years ago, I was in a position where my main consultancy in event design development was running almost by itself. I had always been interested in design but also in making.
I literally bought some basic tools and started making pieces in silver. They were pretty horrendous creations! Gradually I bought more tools, went on courses and got better at designing and making pieces.
I moved out of the garage into a purpose-built studio workshop in my garden.
Q. Who has helped you along the way?
A. A number of factors have helped to shape where I am with BlueRoc, from being able to source inspiration easily online and from my own research. Plus support from GrowBiz in marketing and networking and joining Perthshire Artisans, which is a fantastic collective of like-minded designers and artists.
Q. What was your biggest mistake?
A. Undervaluing my work!
Q. What is your greatest achievement to date?
A. There are a couple, in different fields. I helped launch the first supermarket bank, launched my own marketing and event management company in Kuwait, produced the Enchanted Forest to be the successful event it is today, but probably the most satisfying is being recognised as a designer and maker of jewellery that people want to buy and wear.
Q. How has coronavirus impacted your business?
A, Hugely. A big element of my sales and other artists in the industry was craft fairs etc. Buying art, jewellery and the like is a tactile experience and it is much more difficult to convey the essence of the design or the artwork without that interaction with the object of your desire.
Q. What is the hardest thing about running your own business?
A. Trying to think of it as a business. With my background, the easy part is marketing and selling. What I love is designing and making and therefore letting go can be hard, too. Some of the pieces I have made are very personal with a lot of work in them and sometimes, while it’s great that someone wants to buy the pendant or whatever, you feel so attached to it that it’s quite sad sometimes when you wrap it up and post it off.
Q. What do you hope to achieve in the future?
A. To continue to develop my craft and to work with my contemporaries like those in Perthshire Artisans.
Q. Do you want to recruit in the future?
A. That is unlikely. The pieces I design are one-offs. I don’t replicate or make copies in a commercial way.
Q. Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
A. Just do it. If you have an idea or concept, then please just make it happen.
I started my agency in Kuwait without knowing the language or having an office, I just started with a friend in my lounge using an ancient Mac. BlueRoc started in my garage. Start small, think big. A bit of luck helps, too.
Scottish scientists claim a new genomic approach is needed to protect plant breeders’ rights and improve farmers’ knowledge of precisely what’s going into their fields.
An article published by Communications Biology states that the current intellectual property system for new crop and plant varieties rights needs urgent review as is still based on a set of morphological traits established 60 years ago.
In spring barley, for example, these traits include the “hairiness” of leaf sheaths and the number, shape, length and density of a plant’s ears.
After evaluating 805 UK barley varieties, geneticists at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) have identified “deficiencies” in the system.
Professor Ian Mackay, one of the SRUC researchers who studied the effectiveness of the current Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) system, said that “things have moved on”.
He added: “Genetic markers, which use DNA sequences to identify possible weaknesses, are a far more effective way of assessing traits and introducing improved crop varieties and, ultimately, better yields.
“They would also create a better audit trail of what goes into the field, what comes out of it and what goes into the seed boxes which are sold to the farmers.
“Comparing genetic markers to the DUS system is like comparing forensic evidence to a police line-up. Our study shows that, quite frankly, it’s no longer fit for purpose.”
The report went on to suggest that a new approach could address the lack of genetic diversity in modern crops.
The report concludes: “With the impacts from Brexit (in the UK and EU) and Covid-19 looming for an unforeseeable future, there may be heavy restrictions on seed movement that impede the process of getting varieties into the market.
“Such limitations are non-ideal since only a small fraction of the candidate varieties end up passing the DUS test while the rest end up as a waste of time and money.
“Lastly, genomic DUS will unlock a new opportunity for an improved seed certification system to better protect breeders, farmers, and customers.”
Farmers’ union NFU Scotland has teamed up with Police Scotland to urge dog owners to keep their animals under control when visiting the countryside.
The plea comes ahead of an expected surge in visitors to the countryside once Covid-19 restrictions begin to ease.
NFU Scotland (NFUS) regional manager, Lorna Paterson, said farmers were still experiencing the “devastating impacts” of dog attacks on livestock despite repeated pleas for people to keep their dogs under control.
“Such incidents not only cause obvious suffering to sheep and cattle, but they also have a financial, emotional and time impact on our members and their families and cause significant upset,” said Ms Paterson.
“These attacks by dogs are not inevitable and are down to the irresponsible behaviour of their owners.”
She said NFUS and Police Scotland are reminding all visitors to the countryside to remember that all farms are working environments and must be respected by everyone accessing them.
Police Scotland’s northeast division crime reduction officer, Constable Mike Urquhart, said: “There is a real need to inform dog owners about the risks all dogs can pose to sheep.”
“Farmers can legitimately shoot any dog that is worrying livestock and owners having destruction orders placed on dogs by the Courts.”
Two Aberdeenshire smallholders, who run a flock of 22 pure Texel sheep, have spoken of the devastation caused by dog attacks on livestock.
The pair suffered an attack on their flock by a neighbour’s Border Terrier dog, which led to eight sheep suffering bite injuries on their faces and another suffering a more significant injury which resulted in it being put to sleep.
Figures released by rural insurer NFU Mutual earlier this year showed a 13% reduction in the number of dog attacks on livestock last year.
The insurer said although the number of incidents was down, its survey of more than 1,200 dog owners revealed 64% let their pets roam free in the countryside.