Other group subsidiaries also record losses
JRL’s modular housing business has recorded another year of losses, despite an improvement in turnover.
The business has been part of the concrete frame specialist’s stable of subsidiaries since 2022, when, as Caledonian Modular, it was bought out administration by JRL, saving 200 jobs at its Newark factory.
However, financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 showed the business was continuing to struggle.
Revenue increased to £23.1m, from £14m the year prior, with the vast majority coming from the firm’s central function of designing, building, and installing permanent buildings.
Despite this, pre-tax losses increased on the previous year.
Unlike the year before, the cost of sales exceeded the firm’s turnover, resulting in a gross loss of £1.2m.
Further administrative expenses and an impairment charge brought the firm’s loss before tax to £8.3m, worse than the loss of £2.32m the year before.
JRL Modular is one of 14 subsidiaries of the Hertfordshire-based JRL Group. Two others, Midgard and J Reddington, also recently reported their results for the year to 31 December.
Midgard, the main contracting division in JRL, fell from an £8.65m profit to a £9.92m loss, despite increasing turnover from £536m to £612m.
>> Read more: Government launches wider probe into Caledonian Modular after school closures
Meanwhile, J Reddington, a groundworks and concrete frame specialist, reduced its losses, from £8.16m to £746,000, on reduced turnover - down from £396m to £352m.
JRL Group’s own accounts, published last October, revealed that the firm’s losses over the previous two years had topped £80m, after it was forced to restate its 2022 figures as a result of material and labour costs on fixed price jobs.
JRL chairman John Reddington admitted the past two years have been among the most challenging in its 27 year history.
The company recorded a £36m loss in its most recent full-year.
Malaysian conglomerate IJM Corporation agreed to take a 50% stake in the JRL Group last November.
Listed on Bursa Malaysia, the country’s stock exchange, IJM was set up in 1983 and specialises in construction, property development, materials and infrastructure concessions.
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