ISG revenue passes £2bn mark

ISG has seen its revenue pass the £2bn mark, as it enjoyed a record 2018.

Revenue rose to £2.2bn for the year to 31 December 2018, up from £1.7bn in 2017.

• CEO interview: ISG’s Paul Cossell – ‘We are in a revolution’

Meanwhile, underlying pre-tax profit increased by 36.5% to £38.5m.

The firm, which specialises in the office, technology, science, health, retail, hospitality and education sectors, also saw a rise in its forward order book to £1.4bn at the year end, up from £1.3bn in 2017.

Revenue in the fit-out arm of the business rose from £395.9m in 2017 to £609.1m in 2018, boosting underlying profit before tax to £6.5m, up from £10.5m. ISG added that the London fit-out market remained strong despite uncertainty around Brexit.

In its construction division, revenue increased from £480.1m in 2017 to £520.2m in 2018, although profit fell slightly from £6.8m in 2017 to £5.7m to 2018. Business in the southern region fell short of targets with delays to key schemes, although the western region completed the year with a record forward order book, and revenue, profit, cash and forward order book all increased in northern England and Scotland.

The company also reported on a range of sustainable business targets, set out by its 2021 Sustainable Business Strategy, including a 39% reduction in greenhouse gases in 2018 against its 2015 baseline.

And for the first time, ISG measured the proportion of its senior employees from under-represented groups, which stands at 6.5%. The firm is working on increasing the levels of diversity in its ranks. While 50% of ISG’s 10-strong executive committee board is now female, boosting representation of traditionally under-represented groups, in an organisation as large as ISG, is still a challenge.

Chief executive Paul Cossell told CM in a recent interview:“We are still getting massive underrepresentation of diversity by gender and ethnicity, particularly in site-based roles, so that is disappointing. We have started to run stats based on diversity about people interviewed, jobs offered and jobs accepted. It will be interesting to see what that tells us about any unconscious bias.”

Commenting on the results, he said: “Set against the wider sector backdrop of high-profile corporate failure and reversing financial performance for many UK-based main contractors, ISG’s record results demonstrate the efficacy of our technology and specialism-led approach, that places our customers and people at the heart of our long-term strategic vision.”