Insider Media Limited

Builders' merchants Jewson more than doubled pre-tax profit and improved revenue to £1.5bn in its most recent financial year. The Coventry-headquartered timber specialist said the improvement in its fortunes was "powered mainly by cost savings" despite a "stagnant" UK construction sector.

Jewson, wholly owned by France-based Saint Gobain Building Distribution Limited, said revenues had gone up by 4.2 per cent from £1.48bn to £1.55bn for the year ending 31 December 2010.

It made a pre-tax profit of £99.5m - up from £44.5m - while operating profit was £30.4m - up from a £8.3m loss in 2009.

The figures, seen by Insider, were filed to Companies House this month (September 2011).

The directors of the business, which has more than 500 branches across the UK, said: "Despite the difficult market conditions, the company has shown resilience also achieving a like for like sales growth of 3.8 per cent after excluding branches opened and closed during the year.

"(The) sharp rise (in operating profit) has been powered mainly by cost savings achieved. The UK construction sector has been stagnant during the year and the competitive environment has continued to put pressure on both sales and margin.

"The company's financial position at the year-end has improved with total equity increasing by £43.328m. This improvement has largely been the result of the rise in operating profit and net dividend income amounting to £77.204m."

To improve its performance, Jewson said it had hived up the trade and net assets of the CP Insulations division of its immediate parent Saint-Gobain Building Distribution and transferred the trade and net assets of the Jewson International Timber Supplies division to Saint-Gobain. It also said a cash inflow of £3.516m had been achieved in adition to increased operating profit.

Dividends of £58m were paid to its immediate parent for the year and its pension liability had fallen to £36.7m from £58.7m.