Each year The ÐßÐßÊÓƵ analyses the financial accounts of the leading UK construction companies.
This year’s review of the Top 100 contractors is based on an analysis of the companies’ most recent financial results filed before 30th June 2025. It is published in the forthcoming September issue of The ÐßÐßÊÓƵ magazine.
Aggregate turnover of the hundred companies this time reached £76.5bn, up by 7.3% compared to last year’s rankings. As construction output has not grown that much in a year, that increase in turnover can only be at the expense of smaller competitors.
More significant and heartening is the 57% growth in aggregate pre-tax profits in the latest Top 100, to just over £1.9bn.
Turnover grew at 69 of the Top 100 companies – down from 78 last year – while pre-tax profits increased at 68 companies this year, up from 51 in 2024. As a result, pre-tax profit margins – calculated as profit divided by turnover – increased substantially.
The average pre-tax margin across the Top 100 rose to 2.4% this time, up from 1.9% for the same cohort in the preceding year.
Cumbrian contractor and aggregates group Thomas Armstrong recorded the best pre-tax margin, at 14.7%, ahead of HW Martin on 12.2%. Three other construction businesses – precast concrete specialist FP McCann, fit-out contractor Axis Europe and drywall specialist Stanmore – all also had profit margins in double digits.
But 43 companies in this year’s Top 100 reported a pre-tax margin of below 2% and 16 of those were in negative territory.
The three biggest contractors in the Top 100 are, as per last year, Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Kier, whose pre-tax profit margins in their 2024 financial year were 2.6%, 3.8% and 1.7% respectively.
The 20 biggest specialist contractors grew aggregate turnover by 7.1% to nearly £5.7bn, but total profits for this group fell 16.3% to £141.1m and the average pre-tax profit margin shrank to 1.9% from 2.3% across the same companies a year earlier.
To see the full analysis, you can subscribe to The ÐßÐßÊÓƵ magazine here.
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