Mace doubled its profit margin to 6% in 2019 and increased its pre-tax profit by 30%, its 2019 annual report and accounts showed.
The company made a pre-tax profit of £25.3m in 2019, while its turnover was £1.8bn. Turnover was lower than 2018’s figure of £2.3bn, which included a high volume of work delivering European datacentres.
It also delivered more than £688m of construction management work, not included in the overall revenue figure for the group.
Meanwhile its consultancy business grew turnover by 15% to more than £314m in 2019; of which 45% was delivered outside of the UK.
Mace, whose projects during the year included the delivery of the 2019 Pan-American Games and Parapan Games in Lima and the new HS2 Euston Station in London, claimed to have delivered more than £522m of value to society, an increase of £31m since 2018.
The busines has also reduced the average time it takes to pay its suppliers from 34 days in 2018 to 26 days in 2019.
Mace is currently developing a 2026 Business Strategy that reflects the “significant changes” to the global economy over the last six months.
Mark Reynolds, Mace’s Group chief executive said: "2019 was a strong and profitable year for Mace; and one that saw us continue to deliver exceptional results for our clients and progress against the priorities we set ourselves in our 2022 Business Strategy.
“Although the coronavirus pandemic has meant that 2020 has certainly been a challenging year; our robust performance in 2019 has ensured we have been able to remain resilient in the face of global economic uncertainty and challenging trading conditions.
“The international built environment and infrastructure sectors will be feeling the effects of the pandemic for years to come. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that we have a vital role to play in unlocking the economic growth that will drive recovery across the globe.
“As such, it is more important than ever that we all work together to continue to transform our industry. We must maintain our commitments to delivering social value, reducing carbon and innovating to find better ways to deliver our projects and programmes – and it is more critical than ever that we collectively invest in the next generation of skills and talent.”
