Highways help May Gurney to boost results

A strong performance at the highways division helped May Gurney boost turnover and profits for the last financial year.

Total revenue for the year to March 31 2012 was up 22% to £695.3m while pre-tax profit rose 17% to £28.4m as margins held steady at 4.3%.

Highways was among the strongest divisions as May Gurney now runs maintenance services for 20 local authorities covering 35,000 kms of road.

The firm said: "As expected, the maintenance-focused activities provided by May Gurney have proved resilient in the face of a reduction in overall local authority highways spending, while capital projects - to which May Gurney is not exposed - have suffered a significant reduction in activity.

"Although we expect this trend to continue, the business is well positioned to react appropriately in the event of changes in our target markets.

"Highway Services has delivered a good performance during the year, underpinned by its essential maintenance-based income streams, primarily driven by an increase in highways maintenance on the back of extra Government funding, a higher than anticipated additional spend by local authority clients and our clients' need to maintain existing assets due to reduced availability of capital."