Profits up but jobs down at Stewart Milne (From The Oxford Times)
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Profits up but jobs down at Stewart Milne
4:48pm Tuesday 13th November 2012 in Business
By Chris Koenig, covering business. Call me on 01865 425433
Housebuilder Stewart Milne, which has a timber frame manufacturing plant in Witney has revealed a hike in its fortunes.
Pre-tax profits for the year to June 12 were £0.5m, up from £0.4m the previous year, on a turnover of £268.1m (up from £229.1m).
But the rise came at a price as Witney workforce dropped from 120 to 85 as announced this time last year.
Group managing director Glenn Allison said: “Market conditions remain difficult but we anticipate turnover to increase 20 per cent in the current year.”
The group sold its construction arm during the year to Kier Construction.
Mr Allison said: “We could not operate effectively in the market at our size and so we took the decision to exit the market and focus on our profitable and growing core businesses: Homes and Timber Systems.”
