Sheffield-based Fulcrum’s restructure pays off with £600k pre-tax profit

Fulcrum, the UK’s independent energy and multi-utilities service provider, has released its first operating profit since business operations went through a major restructure.

The Sheffield-based company has reported a profit before tax of £600k in its annual results for the year ending 31 March 2015.

As well as having a solid order book, the company has targeted a sales pipeline to build upon its customer base of 1,200 UK clients, which has delivered strong recurrent revenues with over half of its business generated from existing customers.

Due to these strong results, Fulcrum’s Board has proposed a maiden dividend.

Over the past 18 months a full restructure was undertaken within Fulcrum, the only independent utilities infrastructure provider covering the whole of Britain designing and delivering gas, electricity and water pipelines and connections, which fixed cost base and overheads from £17m to £11m creating a solid platform for financial stability and growth.

In the last financial year, Fulcrum also launched a directly managed delivery model as part of its strategic growth strategy. Under this new model, the company manages all elements of its utilities projects across England and Wales from initial consultations through to project completion.

The business has now doubled the size of its workforce to in excess of 200.

In addition to the expanded workforce, Fulcrum has investmented in a fleet of 30 new branded vehicles and mobile technology to deliver real-time project records and response.

In this year alone, Fulcrum has secured a number of significant contracts including the £700k installation of gas, water, electricity connections to new mixed-used development in Wales. The company also won a £500k design and installation project for OCO Ltd, The Improving Homes Schemes for Lambeth Living and £300k gas infrastructure works for a new 171 housing development in Nottinghamshire.

Fulcrum also confirmed a one-year extension to its framework contract for British Gas Business, across England, Wales and Scotland, to November 2015 with an option for an extension.

Martin Donnachie, chief executive officer, said: “Fulcrum has delivered its first ever operating profit, a significant achievement, which reflects the management team’s successful turnaround and transition of the business.With our established customer base, trusted delivery and anticipated upturn in construction activity, we have a robust platform from which to leverage sales growth.

“Our targeted growth strategy is focused on winning major projects, enhancing key account relationships through improved levels of service and increasing penetration in the housing market. We will build our multi-utility capability and will have the first in-house dual fuel teams fully operational in 2015/16. This will be a key differentiator when combined with our customer service led, national, broad offering.”

Phil Holder, chairman of Fulcrum, said: “Fulcrum has made excellent progress this year. We have repositioned the business to provide a robust and strong platform for growth. These achievements have been attained on the back of the strength of the management team, tenacity of our workforce and hard work.

“The Company can now focus on customer service excellence, profitable growth and maximising opportunities in the attractive markets we serve. Not only do we remain confident in the future, we are also on track to achieve our aim of becoming the nation’s most trusted utilities provider.

“The Board intends to introduce and grow a dividend in line with the underlying earnings of the group, while maintaining dividend cover at a prudent level. We are, therefore, delighted to announce that the Board has decided to propose a maiden dividend, subject to shareholder approval. This reflects our confidence in the future.”