Profits up for Miller Group

Miller Group, the house building, property, development and construction business, has announced its annual results, showing an increase in pre-tax profit by 58% to 10.4m.

As of 31 December 2013, Group revenue was £817m, up 32% from £620m the previous year.

The Edinburgh-based firm behind Warrington's Omega development posted an operating loss for its construction arm of £4.6m over the year, after write-downs on "a limited number" of contracts affected its performance.

However, turnover for Miller Construction, which has offices in St Helens, showed significant improvement, up 58% to £409m from £259m. In terms of future results, the firm said its construction order book had hit record levels at £1.8bn, up from £1.5bn in 2012.

The Miller Homes division posted operating profit of £22.8m, up 57% from £14.5m, with revenue of £330m, up 24% from £266m.

Total completions rose 12% to 2,053 units from 1,831.

Keith Miller, chief executive of Miller Group, said: "Miller Homes continues to benefit from increased demand, improving selling prices and a balanced sales mix, and is delivering increasing margins.

"In our Construction business we have taken the necessary steps to deal with the loss-making contracts. The business is now focused on frameworks and aligned to clients with long-term programmes of work.

"This is a strong set of results which provides an excellent base from which to plan the next stage of Miller Group's development."