Beard’s accounts for the year ending 31st December 2022 show turnover up 15% to £165m (2021: £144m), as the business benefitted from a release of pent-up demand from the previous two years.

However, with build costs escalating during the year, pre-tax profit was down 17% at £3.5m (2021: 4.2m).

Beard finance director Fraser Johns said that this still represented 2.1% net profit, “which is really strong” he said.

He added: “We maintained focus on our core objective – ensuring the safety of all those who came into contact with our activities. Our safety objectives achieved a significant reduction in slips, trips, and falls and ultimately in our accident rate in 2022.”

Beard completed 45 projects last year from its offices in Swindon, Guildford, Oxford and Bristol. Highlights included:

• the restoration of Cleveland Pools in Bath
• the renovation of the Royal West of England Academy building in Bristol
• the construction of two care homes for Signature Senior Lifestyle
• the construction of the White Eagle Lodge temple complex in Hampshire
• the construction of a new BMW car show in Melksham, near Chippenham.

Projects begun last year by Beard included the construction of the Aztec 1000 office building in Almondsbury , the southwest’s first net zero carbon in-operation office development; a new community tennis centre at Raynes Park for the All England Lawn Tennis Club; two children’s homes and a family contact centre for Surrey County Council; new boarding houses and a dining room for Abingdon School in Oxfordshire; and the restoration of the two-storey library of Exeter College in Oxford.

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