By Scott Wright

BANCON Group, the Aberdeenshire-based housebuilder and construction company, has signalled confidence in its future trading prospects

– despite “ongoing market challenges” in the north east.

The firm declared it has seen a “strong recovery and trading performance” since coming out of lockdown last summer.

It gave the optimistic assessment as accounts show turnover at Bancon dipped to £85 million in the year ended March 31, 2020, from £92m the year before, as the company was unable to trade in the final weeks of the financial year because of lockdown.

However, an improvement in margins was credited with lifting operating profit to £13.2m from £10.3m.

Bancon reported £3m of exceptional costs, including a non-cash impairment to write down the value of a long-held development and a one-off loss on a historic construction contract, dragged it to a loss before tax of £0.5m.

Chief executive John Irvine said: “These robust results in a financial year, which was impacted by the pandemic and the subdued market in the North-east at the time, reflect the overall health of the group.

“With significantly improved margins and trading performance across all three of our businesses, coupled with a very encouraging future order book, we have firm foundations from which

to build sustainable, profitable growth once the impact of the pandemic is behind us.”

The Banchory-based firm employs over 260 people.