PERTH-based civil engineering firm I&H Brown is considering further expansion in the English market after a drop off in Scottish renewable energy work saw its turnover contract by 25 per cent in the year to August 2017.

Managing director Scott Brown said that as around half the firm’s civil engineering work is now being generated south of the Border it is looking at the possibility of complementing its Warrington presence with a base in Bristol.

“The biggest thing about last year is that our turnover came down,” Mr Brown said.

“The good thing is we have a significant amount of business coming from our office in Warrington.

“We’ve been in Warrington for about 12 years and while it took a while to establish about half our business in terms of civil engineering is coming from there.

“We’re considering looking for another office, probably in Bristol, and have undertaken research on that. That would take 12 to 24 months to establish.”

Civil engineering now accounts for around 90 per cent of I&H Brown’s total turnover, which fell from £72.5 million in 2015/16 to £54.6m in 2016/17.

Mr Brown said the fall was primarily down to the “change in the renewable energy world”, which has not been so marked in England as in Scotland, where lucrative subsidies for onshore wind projects were heavily cut last year.

“The subsidies didn’t disappear but the form has changed and I don’t think [onshore wind] is as attractive to the industry as it was,” Mr Brown said.

“In terms of projects that are coming through, there are far fewer now. They provided a lot of work for Scottish civil engineers - we were doing access roads and turbine bases.

“We knew it was coming but now we’re seeing the effects.”

Because I&H Brown does not envisage this segment of the market coming back it is looking to reduce its 220-strong workforce by around 10 per cent in response.

“Our business is currently adjusting,” Mr Brown said.

“We’re trying to take account of the fact that our turnover is down and we could be about 10 per cent lower [in staff numbers].

“Some people are retiring anyway and we are getting a natural reduction by not replacing them so we’re not having to go through a serious cull of numbers.”

Mr Brown said smaller civil engineering firms like I&H Brown had also felt the impact of public spending being focused on “huge iconic” projects such as the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the Queensferry Crossing, which tend to hand work to much larger players.

Despite the drop off in civil engineering work seeing the turnover from that part of the business fall by 30 per cent from £70.4m to £49.3m, I&H Brown’s smaller business units grew much more strongly in 2016/17.

Its property development arm in particular saw turnover rocket from half a million pounds to £3.4m, although it had fallen back from £1.9m in the previous year.

The firm’s farm and estate management business experienced a 37 per cent uplift in turnover to £942,000 while the rental income from its investment properties grew by four per cent to £974,000.

In terms of profitability, the firm’s pre-tax figure plummeted by 65 per cent from £6.5m to £2.3m.

However, the previous year’s figure had been bolstered by a gain on the revaluation of investment properties as well as a profit on the sale of some land.

In 2014/15 the firm’s profit stood at £2.1m.

Despite the sizeable drop-off in activity during the year the family-owned firm, which was founded by Mr Brown’s father Hardie Brown and late uncle Ian Brown, continued to strengthen its financial position by paying down its debts.

Having started the year with an overdraft of £3.7m and loans of £340,000 it ended it with no loans and an overdraft of £86,000.