SOUTH Derry paving manufacturer Tobermore saw pre-tax profits increase to just over £19 million last year, adding around 83 new jobs in the process.
The latest accounts for the concrete specialist, which continues to grow its market presence in Britain, revealed a 21.6 per cent rise in turnover to £85.4m for the year ended April 30 2022.
The company, which experienced a boom in demand for its paving and walling products in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, announced a major £30m expansion in September 2020, a move it expected to create around 95 new jobs.
But the annual report filed with Companies House in recent days show Tobermore had added 200 jobs in three years to April 2022.
Its workforce went from 263 in 2019 to 463 in 2022. Some 60 production workers were added in the 12 months to April 2022 alone. The company has also recruited new administration and distribution staff over the same period.
The recent workforce expansion added an extra £3m to Tobermore’s wage bill in the latest reporting year, with total staff costs rising to £16.5m for the 12 months to April 2022.
While many areas of the local economy effectively ground to a halt in the wake of the first Covid-19 lockdown in late March 2020, Tobermore owner David Henderson said the pandemic had sparked a home improvement trend which resulted in record demand for its products.
Its turnover increased by 68 per cent between 2019 and 2022, with profit before tax up by 62 per cent in those three years.
The latest set of accounts show no slowdown in demand for Tobermore’s products, with the company continuing to grow its presence across the Irish Sea.
The growth has been boosted by deals with major suppliers, including Britain’s largest builders’ merchants, Travis Perkins.
“The strategic focus of the company is to create more opportunities in the mainland UK market,” stated the annual report.
“This has resulted in increased turnover and profitability in all months during the year.”
The bumper year allowed Tobermore Concrete Products Limited to declare a dividend of £2m for 2022. But the rising profits saw its tax bill also climb to just over £4m.
That still left the business with an extremely healthy bottom line profit of just over £15m, with shareholder funds growing from £64.7m to £77.9m over the year.
The success of the business saw David Henderson take one of the top prizes at the highly regarded all-island EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards during the period covered in the report.
Mr Henderson, who joined the family business in 1976 and became its managing director in 1987, was named EY Industry Entrepreneur of the Year in November 2021.
