It’s fair to say that the pandemic sent tremors through even the hardiest of businesses - the aftershocks are still being felt by many.
At the start of the pandemic, MCP had to make rapid decisions that would prioritise the safety of our employees and those we serve in the community, whilst protecting the business.
Covid-19 restrictions meant that we could only carry out emergency work for our social housing customers which in turn impacted our workforce and of course, our contracts.
Naturally, the Covid restrictions also affected our supply chain; with reductions in material availability, material cost increases and delivery schedules becoming painfully slow. Also the availability of labour resource was in short supply.
The result – echoing those of so many other businesses – was a dramatic increase in our base costs which, coupled with restricted working conditions, led to a dip in turnover and a resulting loss for the year 2020/21.
Accelerating growth through regeneration
As a strong, united and highly motivated family business, we saw the crisis as an opportunity to recalibrate and regenerate our business so that it is future-proof.
Over the last 12 months we have:
- Restructured the business
- Recruited a new senior leadership team
- Implemented new processes and procedures
These changes led us to take further positive actions including:
- A full review of all contracts
- A full company-wide review of procurement to identify where cost savings could be made, leading to the re-procurement of high-value items/services
- A review of loss-making contracts, followed by re-negotiations and in some instances, exit plans were agreed
- Agreeing on rate uplifts with clients to mitigate cost increases in labour and materials
- Implementing a new invoice facility to improve long-term liquidity for growth
Despite the challenges we faced, we also took the bold, strategic decision to increase salaries within the operations team by 12.5% in order to be more competitive in the marketplace. This has proved to be very successful, and we now have a more stable and secure team driving strong productivity and The MCP quality service.
On track to achieve financial targets
The changes we made during the course of 2021/22 have now started to deliver positive results during 2022/23:
- Turnover set to increase from £14.8m to £15.6m
- Operating costs reduced by around £0.47m
- Reduced aged debt from £1.4m to £89k
- We expect to see a net profit of £0.5m by the year-end 2022/23 - a positive swing of approximately £2.1m compared to post-Covid results
Record-breaking order book
Despite all that has happened over the last few years, and the difficult decisions that we had to make, we have still managed to achieve our pre-pandemic goals of expanding into new regions across the UK, resulting in orders received during 2021/22 totalling an incredible £55m.
Thanks to our loyal and committed team, clients and supply chain, who have supported us and trusted our vision and determination, MCP is now stronger and more resilient than ever before in our 45-year history. The health of our business has returned to a positive pre-Covid trading position, and we are looking forward to doubling our net profit by the year-end 2023/24 and to continue our upward trajectory towards a target of £23m turnover by end 2023.
Managing Director, Mark Gelder
