Caddick’s profit stuttered after the group was hit by “challenges in the wider domestic and global economy”, according to its latest annual accounts.
However, its construction business boosted profit and turnover, and the group revealed bold plans to increase revenue by more than 40 per cent in the coming year.
Caddick Group – which comprises construction and civil engineering, development and facade divisions – tabled a pre-tax profit of £28.8m in the year to 31 August 2024, down from £35.5m the year before when it finished 34th in the CN100 rankings of top contractors.
Despite the decrease, Caddick pointed to a “robust set of results, given the backdrop of continued challenges in the wider domestic and global economy, together with a slower real-estate funding market as a consequence”.
Those challenges include the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as “competition in the marketplace, the lack of demand due to the economy, [and] disruption to the supply chain and price volatility”, its accounts stated.
Turnover was up to £603.6m from £575m, mainly driven by growth in Caddick’s construction and engineering division, which accounted for 60 per cent of the group’s revenue last year.
Caddick Construction grew its turnover to £355.2m from £317.6m – while it also made a pre-tax profit of £8.3m from £7.4m.
Managing director Paul Dodsworth said the division’s strategy is to “balance our portfolio between the public and private sectors, growing our education and defence work pipeline alongside our core residential and industrial sectors.
“We are well-positioned to continue benefiting from UK Government spending commitments and we are confident in sustaining strong cash generation, especially over the last few years, allowing us to grow and deliver the evolved long-term sustainable growth plan for Caddick Construction Group,” he added in a press release accompanying the results.
In the current financial year, Caddick Construction aims to increase the turnover of its construction business by more than 40 per cent to £500m. So far, it has already secured or completed work worth £347m for the year to 31 August 2025, it said.
Over the course of the year, Caddick Construction opened a new regional office in Birmingham to serve the Midlands area, while This year, the construction division also opened a new office in Durham in March.
Caddick formed CCL Facades when it bought Speedclad, a facade specialist, out of administration in October 2022.
The latest group accounts showed the facades business made a £600,000 profit in its first full year of trading.
Caddick Construction grew its Yorkshire turnover by 9 per cent, with year-on-year revenue up 13 per cent in its North West region as well.
Caddick’s civil engineering turnover rose by 17 per cent to £15.8m – largely thanks to four contracts with two unnamed national housebuilders. But Caddick said it is “currently looking to diversify into other civils work, both through intragroup work and on external contracts”.
The group’s cash reserves increased by 20 per cent from £50.1m to £60.3m in its latest accounts, and it paid out £2m in dividends compared with £2.4m the year before. It held £312,000 in loan debt repayable by 31 August this year, and an unsecured loan of £27,000 for repayment by September. Headcount grew by 9 per cent from a monthly average of 645 to 739 employees, leading to a 15 per cent increase in the annual wage bill from £37.7m to £43.6m
In October, Dodsworth told Construction News that one of his main aims when he took over Caddick Construction was to shift more towards public work – to spread risk and open up more markets. In particular, the firm was focused on the government’s commitment to build 1.5m homes in the current parliament.