Willmott Dixon, the privately owned construction and interiors company, publishes an update on current trading and its accounts for the 12 months to 31 December 2024.

Main financials in 2024:

• Turnover of £1.2 billion (2023: £1.2 billion)
• Profit before tax of £46.8 million (2023: £14.4 million loss)
• Profit before tax, exceptional items and goodwill amortisation of £28.6 million (2023: £5.2 million loss)
• Cash at bank of £121.4 million, no debt (2023: £115.1 million, no debt)
• Net assets of £174.1 million (2023: £158.8 million)
• Record £1.3 billion in contract awards

Current trading (Q2 2025):

• Order book of £2.345 billion including over £900.0m in net zero projects
• 93% of 2025 revenue already secured or probable
• 81% of turnover in public sector, with 77% procured through long-term frameworks

Chief Executive Officer Graham Dundas commented:

“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.

“I’m proud of the remarkable, award-winning projects we completed for our customers in 2024, with three winning at the British Construction Industry Awards* and Willmott Dixon once again stood out from our peers in being recognised for a second successive year by the King’s Awards for Enterprise.”

“Our expertise and excellent track record for delivering properties that will be net zero in operation is well recognised by our customers and positions us strongly for the future, with our order book for net zero projects exceeding £900.0m, up 450% since 2020.”

2024 in review

Willmott Dixon made solid progress in 2024, achieving pre-exceptional pre-tax profits of £28.6m after reporting a loss for the previous financial year.

Prior losses partly owed to the significant provisions made for legacy cladding remediation works. The company secured net recoveries from third parties of over £20.0m against those historic provisions during the year, with this exceptional additional income taking 2024’s total profit before tax and goodwill amortisation to £48.8m.

Group revenue remained steady at £1.2bn as the business maintained its relentless focus on project and supply chain selection. The positioning of projects as design-complete and procurement-ready before work starts on site is already proving successful in delivering more consistent and predictable project margins.

Notably, the company also won a record amount of new work, marking a further shift in order book towards high-quality long-term contracts, and improved on an already strong cash position at £121.4m, underpinned by a debt-free balance sheet.

Major projects secured during the period include a £90.0m project to build a new student village in Stoke-on-Trent for the University of Staffordshire that will be built using Passivhaus principles, a £61.0m project from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to enable the rebasing of the 18 Army Education Centre and 1 Military Working Dogs from St George’s Barracks to Kendrew Barracks, a £60m project for Bridgend College to build its new net zero in operation (NZiO) Town Centre Campus and the £49.0m redevelopment of Wigan & Leigh College, also NZiO.

The company was also selected for over £130.0m of projects for the ‘blue light’ sector with a new Joint Firearms and Tactical unit facility for South Wales Police near Bridgend, a new HQ for Herts Constabulary in Welwyn and a new police station in Milton for Cambridgeshire Police. Work in the fast-emerging transport connectivity sector continues to grow, with contracts for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester.

Current trading in 2025

On trading so far this year, Graham 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.

“The above factors give us much to be optimistic about although we remain far from complacent in what has become an uncertain world. While we await the Government’s Spending Review this summer, we are confident that our presence in critical sectors such as education, blue light services, residential and transport – supported by our leading position in sustainable construction – provides greater resilience.”

Willmott Dixon Construction - turnover £1.0bn (£1.0bn 2023)

Construction had a strong year and its position as a sustainability leader delivering projects with ultra-low carbon emission standards continued. Education also continues to provide a solid pipeline of net zero work.

Contracts completed in 2024 included:

• Bolton Institute of Medical Sciences, a “first of its kind” facility and transformational blueprint for training NHS staff
• Hopetown Darlington, transforming the former Darlington Railway Museum into a cutting-edge tourist attraction
• Cozenton Park Sports Centre, delivering important new leisure facilities in Rainham, Essex
• The Quad - a digital skills & enterprise hub that is bridging the gap between education and employment in Telford
• Tintern, Sonnet, and Hamlet houses in Brentford - 96 high-quality, sustainable homes in Hounslow
• Brighton Metropolitan College – phase two of the college's Pelham Street site redevelopment

Willmott Dixon Interiors - turnover £146.7m (£130.9m)

Interiors grew steadily in 2024. Alongside long-term roll-out and brand refresh programmes for customers like Travelodge, Barclays and the Metropolitan Police, new projects in 2024 included a fast-track project for Brent Council at its Civic offices in Wembley to delivery improved public amenities, upgrades to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and supporting Sutton Council on repurposing several former retail units as part of its High Street regeneration programme.

Interiors is also strengthening its reputation in the restoration of heritage assets, including a contract to install a new, sun-protected roof over the central area of the world-famous National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Interiors’ projects completed in 2024 include:

• a Cat B fit-out of floor seven Quarry House in Leeds for the Department of Health and Social Care
• a Cat A fit-out of 5 St Philips in Birmingham for Royal London Asset Management
• reconfiguring the public space at Brent Civic Centre to improve the visitor experience
• 65 projects completed for Travelodge as part of its brand roll-out programme

Our People

Graham concluded:

“Our culture and the quality of our people will continue to drive our company forward. When we were presented with a King’s Award for Enterprise for the second successive year, it was the fifth time Willmott Dixon has received the UK’s highest business accolade in the past ten years.

“We want to stand out as a diverse, inclusive and supportive place to work, where our people can enjoy the career of a lifetime as we deliver outstanding projects for our customers. This month saw Willmott Dixon named the fourth best place to work in Europe according to the FT’s Best Employers guide of 1,000 firms: one of two companies to represent the UK in the top 10. We followed this by appearing in the top ten of the big company category in The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work guide, which also included the distinction of being named best big construction company to work for.”

“We are also committed to achieving our aspiration of gender parity by 2030. Currently the proportion of women in the business stands at 33% against an industry average of 16% as we progress towards this goal.”

* Three projects won their category at the British Construction Industry Awards.

• London won environmental and sustainability initiative of the year
• Halifax Bus Station won transport project of the year
• Bristol Beacon won retrofit project of the year