SOUTH Derry construction giant FP McCann, the UK's largest manufacturer and supplier of pre-cast concrete products, has seen its sales pass the quarter of a billion pound mark for the first time.
The family-owned firm, established in 1945, has reported a turnover of £254.5 million in the 2018 calendar year, up from £208.1 million in the previous 12-month period.
And the company, based at Knockloughrim near Magherafelt and with operations across Ireland and Britain, also saw its bottom-line profit lift from £15.5m to £16.4m in what its directors said was a satisfactory trading period.
FP McCann, which is involved in a diverse range of civil engineering projects, has enjoyed a stellar period of growth over the last decade, expanding the business both organically and through acquisition.
Its most recent acquisitions have included Patrick Bradley Ltd (Kilrea), Cootes Concrete Products (Armagh), P. Clarke and Sons Ltd (Lisnaskea), Buchan Concrete (Byley) and Bison Flooring Manufacturing Ltd (Glasgow).
According to figures filed at Companies House, shareholder funds at the company have grown from £57.9m in 2017 to £73.3m last year.
The average number of employees rose from 1,374 to 1,592, two thirds of them in production, which led to the firm's wages bill jumping from £49.2m to £60.4m.
The directors were paid just shy of £1 million, with the highest paid of them, thought to be managing director Eoin McCann, having a salary package of more than £170,000.
Among the company's range of core activities, it boosts a residential developments division (FP McCann Homes) as well as being a major supplier of quarry products and ready-mix concrete products.
Last year it was revealed that the UK's Competition and Markets Authority is investigating FP McCann as part of an inquiry into an alleged cartel.
The CMA alleged that "three drainage product manufacturers broke competition law by co-ordinating prices for customers and sharing the market" but stressed that "at this stage, no assumption can be made" that FP McCann Limited "has broken the law".
The competition authority provisionally found that three firms, including McCann, secretly shared out the market and colluded on prices for construction products used in many building projects across Britain.
