Co Tyrone construction company McAleer & Rushe has revealed that it turned down a number of projects last year in order to keep its portfolio of major UK contracts on time and within costs.

The Cookstown firm made the disclosure in a new company report which showed it recorded an 18% rise in its annual turnover to £395m on the back of a series of major projects in England during 2018.

McAleer & Rushe Contracts UK Ltd enjoyed a 25% surge in pre-tax profits to £16.8m in the 12 months to December 31 2018.

The Tyrone company also saw its workforce expand from 300 to 332 over the year.

The details were disclosed in a fresh set of accounts made public over the weekend.

The report relates to the construction end of the business and does not detail income from its property and investment portfolio.

Managing director Martin Magee said: "While we have increased our turnover by £61m, we have also been able to increase our net profit to 4.2%. This is a reflection of the continued success and financial robustness of the business and we look forward to building on that success in 2019."

According to a strategic report by McAleer and Rushe director Eamon Higgins, the construction firm was actively on site at 24 UK building projects at the end of December, including a £131m residential scheme at Wembley and two student schemes in Bournemouth worth £54m.

It said: "The company continued to build on the strong platform established in recent years and, with the progression of several larger schemes to their latter stages through the year, further turnover growth was delivered."

The pipeline of major contracts is expected to continue for McAleer and Rushe.

"The company is close to securing a number of further larger scale contracts with both new and existing clients while operating at, or close to, current project levels," states the report.

However, it adds: "Despite the availability of work during the year, the company has not taken up all opportunities presented to ensure focus remains on the timely and cost-focused delivery of a manageable workload."

McAleer and Rushe said its current strategic approach to major contracts should allow it to target a comparable performance in 2019.

Credit : Belfast Telegraph