Outlook With a strong pipeline of opportunities, no debt and a healthy cash position, we enter the next financial year with justifiable confidence. Our improvements to organisational structure and our ability to invest in new opportunities can provide the platform to keep growing the business into the future. Our investment in the roll-out of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, first in the UK and then globally, will further improve our ability to gain up-to-the-minute financial information, improving visibility and control. As an EBT with no shareholders we can take a longer-term view of growing the business, putting sustainability front and centre. This financial year once again saw double-digit growth. During the reporting period, revenue was £203.5m, up from £185m in the previous year, which represented an increase of 10%. We achieved profit before tax and profitsharing schemes of £23.8m during the reporting period, up from £14m in the previous year and this represented an increase of 70%. This enabled us to reward our employee members with a total profit distribution of £9.8m. Our increased growth and profitability over the reporting period mean that we are in a stronger position to invest in growth opportunities in the years ahead. Business environment The benefit of an aligned business portfolio across different markets was clearly demonstrated again during the reporting period. Our UK operations showed strong growth, buoyed by delivering the first stage of the largest ever contract in our history, as a key supplier and subcontractor to the Royal Navy’s FSS programme. But this was just one area of note, with strong performance right across our core UK portfolio. Financial performance Our businesses in Canada and North America both recorded solid progress, the latter buoyed by a pickup in demand for our asset monitoring services within the energy sector. The Asia Pacific region, in recent years an area of relative underperformance, made an improved contribution as we gained more clarity over Australia’s defence spending, and our environment business benefited from new wind farm developments. While the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape created uncertainty during the reporting period, it also created opportunities as customers sought to mitigate risks and reposition themselves for a changing future. Margin Not only were we able to improve operating profit margins during this financial year, but we were also able to accelerate the increase, from 6.7% in the previous year to 11.5% in this reporting period. This is the reflection of a successful combination of judicious cost management, efficiency measures and project management controls, along with our continued focus on high value work that best utilises the expertise of our people. Cash flow At the end of the reporting period, our cash position after the payment of distributions to employees, tax liabilities and contributions to the group’s pension scheme, was £12.7m higher than the previous year. This was made possible by strong working capital management, margin improvement and the cash-generative nature of our work. Employee distribution We were able to significantly increase distributions in line with our status as an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT). This enabled us to better reward our people, who are both central to our success and increasingly in demand from competitors. Total distribution to employees during the reporting period was £9.8m, a 92% increase compared to last year. Pension Pension liabilities reduced by £3.7m during the financial year, predominantly driven by continued additional employer contributions. In September 2024, we appointed a new professional, corporate sole trustee to manage the scheme going forward. This specialist will provide the fund with the latest thinking and expertise. We continue to carefully manage our pension liability and implement the plan already in place to reduce liabilities over the medium term. A strong year of continued growth in both revenue and profits ‘Our improvements to organisational structure and our ability to invest in new opportunities can provide the platform to keep growing the business into the future.’ While the year ahead is likely to see significant economic and political instability, our ability to help our customers innovate and adapt in response to ongoing and new challenges, which include everything from energy transition to national security, mean that we can continue to generate value for both our business and our customers. Gareth Taylor Chief Financial Officer, BMT BMT Group Ltd | Review of performance 23-24 30 31
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