Member Article

Durham’s Hargreaves Services makes ‘real turning point’ with return to profitability

Hargreaves Services plc, the Durham-based plc servicing the infrastructure, energy and property sectors, looks to have left a turbulent trading period behind after its pretax profits shot up to £4.1m.

Releasing its preliminary results for the year ended 31 May 2017 this morning, figures were a far cry from last year’s losses of £10.6m whilst revenues also increased year on year from £340.7m to £342.9m.

The uptakes reflected a first full year of trading from the business’ Blackwell acquisition in its Earthworks Division; this offset lower revenues in the company’s Coal Distribution and Industrial Services divisions.

Whilst UK coal mining conditions remain difficult by the by, Hargreaves paid tribute to its German trading associate. The strong performance in Germany reportedly more than offset soft trading in the UK coal trading business following another mild winter.

Commenting on the figures, Hargreaves Chairman David Morgan said: “These results demonstrate the excellent progress made by the Group over the last year.

“The achievement of our Group profit target was a positive step forward, which we believe marks a real turning point for the Group.

“The independent property valuation exercise provides further confidence about the longer term value that we aim to create from our property portfolio.

“Whilst challenges remain to be overcome in some of our businesses, we are on track to achieve or over-acheive the three key strategic goals we set ourselves in 2016.”

He added: “We will continue to be careful in managing capital allocation and risk as we move forward.”