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Tighter contract controls also contributed to the turnaround with pre-tax profits for 2024 at £46.8m compared to a £14.4m loss last time with turnover steady at £1.2bn.
Previous losses were partly down to significant provisions made for legacy cladding remediation works.
But in the latest numbers Willmott Dixon has booked a positive exceptional item of £20m after securing net recoveries from third parties while winning a record £1.3bn in contract awards.
Chief Executive Officer Graham Dundas said: “We’re delighted to have returned to profit as we expected in 2024, responding strongly to a difficult economic environment in 2023, and adding a record £1.3bn of new contract awards to our high-quality order book.
“Our strategies, including a more rigorous focus on contract selection, are generating much improved consistency in our financial performance, with all parts of the Group delivering a meaningful contribution to the welcome return to profit in 2024.
“These results, and the operational performance that underpins them, give us great momentum and a solid foundation to move on into 2025, backed up by a very strong cash position and a solid pipeline of opportunities. I look forward to the rest of the year with confidence and cautious optimism.
On trading so far this year, Dundas said: “We’ve started the current trading year strongly with secured and probable workload of 93% by March. Most of this has been procured through public sector procurement frameworks, the bedrock of our order book, with 81% of our turnover derived from the public sector and 77% through long-term frameworks.
“Over half of our work is with repeat business customers, and this remains an area that we’ll continue to grow using our presence on a combination of national and local frameworks.”
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