Clegg targets record turnover after delayed starts

Clegg Construction is forecasting record turnover of more than £100 million in 2026 as projects delayed by planning approvals move into construction and begin contributing to the Nottingham-based contractor’s workload.

The forecast follows a weaker revenue year in 2025, when turnover fell by about 10 per cent to £77 million after several major schemes were held back in planning. Directors expect those projects to support a substantially stronger 2026, with revenue growth of at least 30 per cent taking the business through the £100 million mark for the first time.

Despite the lower 2025 turnover, pre-tax profit more than doubled from £176,000 to £358,000, partly helped by an £80,000 research and development tax credit. The contractor ended the year with £3.1 million in cash, while net assets increased from £5.1 million to £5.4 million.

Clegg’s current workload spans defence, education, residential, care, leisure, and commercial projects, with individual contract values reaching £45 million. That spread matters because the expected increase is not being attributed to a single unusually large scheme but to delayed projects starting and a broader pipeline moving through procurement.

Directors also point to earlier client engagement and recent public sector framework wins as sources of greater visibility into 2027 and beyond. Framework access can improve the quality of a contractor’s forward view, although it does not guarantee revenue: each call-off still has to be secured, designed, resourced, and delivered.

The contrast between 2025 and 2026 illustrates one of the awkward characteristics of contractor accounts. Revenue can move sharply when planning, funding, or regulatory approvals shift a handful of projects across a year end, even where the underlying workload has not disappeared. A delayed start removes certified turnover from one reporting period but can simply push the work into the next.

That timing effect still creates operational pressure. Contractors carry preconstruction teams, design resources, estimating costs, and overhead while projects wait for consent or regulatory approval. If several starts slip together, revenue can fall before capacity can be reduced. When those schemes finally move on site, the same business then has to scale delivery quickly without weakening commercial control.

Clegg’s anticipated 30 per cent-plus increase therefore creates a different challenge from the planning delays that held back 2025. Site management, supply chain capacity, working capital, design coordination, and procurement all have to expand with turnover. Record revenue only helps if project margin and cash conversion survive the increase in activity.

The company’s relatively modest 2025 pre-tax profit shows why that distinction matters. On £77 million of turnover, a few hundred thousand pounds of profit leaves limited room for project problems, cost escalation, or delayed payments. Construction remains a high-volume, low-margin activity where one underperforming contract can absorb the return generated by several successful ones.

Framework work can reduce some of the uncertainty by providing a longer procurement horizon. That can help a contractor plan teams, specialist relationships, and preconstruction resource with more confidence than a sequence of unrelated one-off tenders. The benefit is strongest when projects are sufficiently developed to give the supply chain reliable information rather than simply adding headline value to a framework pipeline.

Earlier client engagement can provide similar advantages. Buildability, programme, procurement, and regulatory issues are cheaper to resolve before construction than after mobilisation, particularly where Gateway approvals or complex planning conditions affect the start date. Preconstruction is increasingly part of the delivery programme rather than a preliminary stage before the real work begins.

At group level, turnover fell 18 per cent to £133 million in 2025, while pre-tax profit recovered to £839,000. Sister company Clegg Food Projects saw revenue fall 29 per cent as consolidation in food manufacturing shifted demand towards extensions and refurbishments rather than new-build factories, underlining how different markets can move independently within the same group.

The immediate construction story is the conversion of delayed pipeline into live workload. Passing £100 million would be a record for Clegg Construction, but the more important measure will be whether the business converts higher activity into stronger margin, cash, and repeatable framework work. After a year shaped by projects waiting to start, 2026 turns the problem around: the contractor now has to deliver the volume that planning delays pushed forward.