Bosses at Mears have completed a turnaround ahead of schedule  and predict “Morrison activities will generate a positive contribution to profit in the second half of this year.”

Mears has spent £6.4m restructuring senior management at Morrison and revamping its IT and back-office systems.

Mears said: “Prior to the acquisition, Morrison had encountered significant challenges having pursued an aggressive growth strategy at the expense of operating margin and service delivery.

“The initial priority following acquisition was to address a number of service delivery failures before seeking resolution to the financial challenges. The speed of the turnaround has exceeded our original expectation.”

Half year results to June 30 2013 for Mears show turnover up 49% to £457.8m with adjusted pre-tax profit up 15% to £15.5m.

The only drag on results was the M&E business which lost £1.5m on a turnover of £18.7m.

Mears said it is “actively exploring all options for this business to address the underperformance.”

David Miles, Chief Executive, Mears Group, said: “I am delighted at the progress made by the Group in the first half of 2013 and a continued strong performance.

“We delivered both record revenue and record operating profits. The integration of the Morrison social housing business is now substantially complete. As anticipated, integrating Morrison is realising valuable synergies.

“Our Social Housing business has long been recognised as the market leader in terms of operational performance and customer satisfaction.  I believe that the opportunities for us in social housing remain very strong.”