Styles & Wood loss decreases due to retailers strong demand

26th Sep 2014 15:45

Property services and project delivery specialist Styles & Wood saw its revenues go down during the first six months of the year despite strong demand from food retailers and new acquisitions.The group's revenues dropped to £33.6m during the first half from £40.4m in the same period last year.However, the company secured seven new build projects for Lidl and new contracts with Waitrose and Tesco.The company said the business improved due to UK construction growth of 5.4% in the first quarter and 4.8% in the second quarter.Improvements in construction helped Style & Wood to improve its pipeline of new business opportunities, decreasing its loss before tax to £1.2m from last year's £2m.Loss per share was also reduced to 16.6p from 22.9p.Style & Wood secured a number of contracts during the first half which included the £5m refit of the Royal Northern College of Music and £9m refurbishment of Lancaster University Library.Chief executive Tony Lenehan said: "There are increasing levels of activity and confidence in the sectors in which we operate which have begun to translate into a number of significant contract wins, as well as a growing order book as we move into the second half."We have identified a number of growth opportunities across key sectors and believe the group is now right sized and well positioned to take advantage of the growing confidence in our core markets."Shares went up on Friday by 3.09% to 90.2p at 13:46.