Revenue drop of 28% for Perth’s I&H Brown

Strong start to the current year for civil engineering firm

Perth-based developer and civil engineering group I&H Brown is expecting to bounce back from a 28% drop in turnover last year.

The Dunkeld Road firm saw its revenue fall more than £15 million from £54.6m in 2017 to £39.5m for the year ending September 2 2018.

The family firm, which was established in 1964, saw its pre-tax profits fall from £2.3m in 2017 to £377,000 last year.

I&H Brown was hit by a reduction in workload in the first half of the 201718 financial year, with several projects delayed due to clients’ funding issues.

The firm said it had a strong start to the year with a pipeline of work worth £23m for the coming six months, which is in line with the company’s five year average.

“Having had a less busy year in 2017-18 our workload has significantly picked up in the current financial year,” the company said. “In particular, we have been successful in securing infrastructure projects for large housing schemes.

“The past year has seen us secure such projects at major housing developments including Kingdom Park in Kirkcaldy with Murray Estates, Blindwells New Town with Hargreaves Land and we have just commenced our first package of work at Winchburgh for Winchburgh Developments Limited.”

The firm’s accounts noted that some of the contracts from its base in Warrington had performed poorly.

I&H Brown said there had since been several management changes to the regional office with “more control being taken back to head office”.

The company’s development division completed the servicing of ground at Dunfermline for the first phase of 300 houses and secured the second phase of a sale to Persimmon last year.

Further significant additions were made to the company’s consented land portfolio with planning consent being achieved for 900 houses at Kelty and planning consent for residential development on 45 hectares of land at Luncarty in conjunction with a development partner.

The company added: “Since August 2018, the development division has commenced development of two further sites.

“Our Kingsway site in Dundee is now well progressed with a first sale of land to Lidl concluded in May and the company also commenced development of a housing site in Bathgate which is now substantially complete.

“Our development interests in North Dunfermline will be further enhanced by the submission of further planning applications on land now zoned for development including a full planning application for 450 houses at Colton Farm.”

During the financial year the company employed an average of 209 employees.

Picture: Mhairi Edwards. I&H Brown’s headquarters on Dunkeld Road, Perth.