Northern Bear PLC on Monday reported increased revenue and earnings as it swung to a profit in financial 2023, with a strong order book helped by easing inflation.

The Newcastle, England-based building services firm reported a pretax profit of £1.9 million for the year ended March 31, following a £879,000 loss the previous year. Revenue increased 14% to £69.7 million from £61.1 million.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation also rose 14% to £4.1 million from £3.6 million, while basic and diluted earnings per share increased 20% to 8.5 pence from 7.1p each.

Despite the positive results, Northern Bear’s stock was down 3.5% at 57.40p in London on Monday.

Northern Bear had in early April announced its new dividend growth strategy supported by acquisitions and ‘organic progress’. On Monday it reiterated that commitment, including its intention to declare a 4p per share ordinary dividend plus a 1p special dividend for financial 2023.

The firm also said its operations are progressing well and that it has not experienced any slowdown in business to date, despite initial concerns about the impact of rising interest rates.

‘I am delighted with the group’s results for the year, which reflects one of the strongest full year adjusted operating profits reported in our history,’ commented Chair Jeff Baryshnik.

Northern Bear reported ‘similarly strong’ progress in the current financial year, with a well-stocked forward order book to support its trading performance. ‘Inflationary pressures on construction materials prices have eased somewhat, which should lead to improved visibility on near-term profitability,’ it added.

However, the firm cautioned that ‘As always, the timing of group turnover and profitability is difficult to predict despite the continued strong order book and our results are subject to monthly variability.’

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