Wates-owned SES restructure delivers record profit and revenue

Aaron Morby 1 month ago
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Wates is finally seeing the benefits of its acquisition of SES Engineering Services eight years after it bought the then loss-making M&E contractor from Shepherd Group

Rob Clifford, MD of SES Engineering Services
Rob Clifford, MD of SES Engineering Services

Latest published results for SES (Engineering Services) show the firm delivered record results last year after a significant restructure of the business under new managing director Rob Clifford.

Despite challenging market conditions, revenue soared 73% to £299m, generating a near doubling in pre-tax profit to £5.8m in the year to December-end 2023.

SES Engineering Services last five years
Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019
Pre-tax profit £5.8m £3.1m £3.2m -£2.7m -£0.5m
Revenue £299m £173m £159m £146m £208m

 
The turnaround in performance comes after the business aligned with the regional structure that already existed in the Construction division of Wates, and created a new division for integrated specialist services, incorporating the offsite facility Prism.

SES’ four distinct operations are: North; South; Major Projects; and Specialist Services.

The firm’s order book was stable at £721m with headcount at the business up 8% to 960 staff and cash at bank improving to £11m.

 

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