30 November 2023
TClarke plc
TRADING UPDATE
High Quality Order Book Now Exceeds £1.1bn
TClarke plc (“the Group”), the Building Services Group, today provides an update on current trading and on the outlook for the remainder of the financial year ending 31 December 2023.
The Group remains firmly on track to achieve its three-year growth plan target of £500 million revenues in 2023 and expects its year end net cash position to surpass £15 million at 31 December 2023, an increase of £6 million over current market expectations. The Board’s revenue and profit expectations for 2024 and 2025 remain unchanged.
In addition, the Group is pleased to confirm that its forward order book stood at more than £1.1bn at 31 October 2023; double that of the previous year. This increase in size of order book is reflected across our key market sectors as illustrated below.
| Market Sectors | Forward Order Book(as at Oct 2023)£m | Forward Order Book(as at Dec 2022)£m | %Increase |
| Engineering | 489 | 225 | 117% |
| Technologies (inc data centres) | 355 | 111 | 220% |
| Infrastructure | 167 | 121 | 38% |
| Residential | 66 | 73 | -10% |
| FM | 29 | 25 | 18% |
| Grand Total | 1,106 | 555 | 99% |
Beyond that already secured in the order book, TClarke continues to see significant additional opportunity across all of its core market sectors and the Group is currently selectively tendering for in excess of £1.0bn of additional potential opportunities – providing exceptional further forward visibility and instilling confidence in the Board that the business will continue to expand rapidly into 2024 and 2025 and beyond.
Notwithstanding the strength of the Company’s forward order book, the Group is cognizant that the turbulent prevailing construction sector environment is impacting a number of market participants. As a result, TClarke has made a number of strategic decisions to preserve the business’s strong market and financial position. These decisions have included, inter alia:
· early contract agreements;
· the changing of some supply chain partners mid contract to protect project completion dates;
It is anticipated that projects will continue to be delivered to their project programmes and, as a result of the actions taken in the second half, the Group’s 2023 operating profit (EBIT) is now expected to be in the range of £9 million – £10 million.
Mark Lawrence, Chief Executive, said:
“We have now achieved a significant milestone with our secured order book surpassing £1 billion for the first time. This substantial growth positions us well for future success and provides the Board with continued confidence in our ability to deliver a strong performance into 2024 and 2025”.
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