Turnover at specialist concrete and groundworks contractor PJ Carey fell 30.3 per cent in the year to the end of September 2025, but the company’s pre-tax profit rose 85.8 per cent to £12.85m.
The drop in revenue from £317m to £221m in the period reflected “our selective approach to tendering the right projects to deliver successfully”, the company said in its accounts.
“We continued to de-risk future workloads through our selective approach to tendering,” it added.
The jump in both operating and pre-tax profit was attributable to a 32 per cent dip in PJ Carey’s cost of sales to £192.7m and a significant increase in the fair value movements figure, which more than trebled to £1.93m.
This was down to PJ Carey’s investment properties being revalued from £13.42m in 2024 to £15.35m in 2025, it said.
The company said the majority of its projects were delivered in line with expected margins through “improved contract take-on, cost control and commercial discipline”.
“We continued to close out our remaining legacy loss-making projects and start 2026 with those projects substantially complete”, PJ Carey added in its accounts.
Meanwhile, the firm improved its cash position by 31 per cent to £34m in the period, compared with £26m in the previous set of accounts.
Going forward, the contractor said it has a “continued focus on contract take-on and measured revenue and growth”, together with an order book that contains future contract revenue of more than £230m.
PJ Carey’s recent projects include the construction of a new energy from waste facility in South Clyde, a complex waste treatment facility at the Sellafield nuclear site and work for two new prisons at HMP Glasgow and HMP Welland Oaks.
The London-based contractor ranked third in the CN Specialist Index for concrete contractors in 2025.
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