Building company Sisk books more than €19m profit

Builder Sisk’s parent Sicon Ltd earned €19.2 million profit in 2021 despite dealing with Covid challenges in the year’s early months, new figures show.

The Irish construction group has businesses here, in Britain and Europe, working on building contracts for industries and public bodies.

Sicon’s annual accounts show that pretax profit slipped to €19.2 million last year from €23.3 million in 2020.

Chief financial officer Ger Penney noted that Covid-19 lockdowns hit Irish construction in the early months of last year.

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“The challenges brought about by the pandemic had a negative impact on our people and projects,” he said. “But the group’s businesses continued to demonstrate exceptional resilience to deliver another strong full-year financial performance during the year.”

Mr Penny noted that the group continued to grow its construction business and completed projects for key clients in life sciences, data centres and technology.

Turnover was steady at just less than €1.5 billion while Sicon ended the year with almost €240 million in cash.

Ireland was the single biggest contributor to sales at €715.5 million, Britain followed at €499.2 million and continental Europe added €271 million.

During the year, the group handed over the completed complex at Grangegorman on the capital’s northside to Technological University Dublin.

It also continued working on the Dunkettle roundabout in Cork, Limerick Opera House project and various contracts in housing, commercial and life sciences.

In Britain, the Irish-owned business began work on the new Isle of Man ferry terminal in Liverpool and continued with the landmark Mercian Project, Birmingham’s tallest residential building.

Sisk also bought Fuse Rail in Britain, which provides electrification and other services to rail transport, this year. The Irish company says the move will allow it to expand in this sector.

During 2021, the group continued work on contracts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden.

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During the year, Origo, a Sicon subsidiary that sells branded tools to the building industry, bought Masonry Fixing Services.

Sisk bought out the 50 per cent of facilities manager Sensori FM which it did not own earlier this year.

Vision Built, a business that makes steel frames off-site, moved its main manufacturing operations to a new plant in Sligo from Galway.

The group said on Wednesday that it is keen to work closely with suppliers to aid them in getting through the record inflation that hit the building industry following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sicon said transparent and equitable payment mechanisms were one of the ways it had of dealing with the crisis.

Mr Penny maintained that Sicon’s strong balance sheet, prudent bidding approach and management put it in a strong position to secure its long-term future, despite the current unpredictable environment.