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
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.