IN Brief:
- Revenue increased 3% to £1.93bn and adjusted pre-tax profit rose 24.2% to £55.9m.
- Infrastructure revenue increased 7.7% to £971.6m, while Building improved profit despite slightly lower turnover.
- The group enters FY27 with a £4.3bn order book and 90% of projected current-year revenue secured.
Galliford Try has reported a sixth consecutive year of growth, with higher revenue, profit, margins and cash supported by infrastructure activity and a record order book. Revenue for the year to 30 June 2026 increased 3% to £1.931bn, while adjusted profit before tax rose 24.2% to £55.9m.
Statutory pre-tax profit increased to £55.0m from £44.1m, while adjusted operating profit rose 21.9% to £49.5m. The combined adjusted operating margin across the Building and Infrastructure divisions improved from 3.0% to 3.5%, continuing progress towards the group’s 4% margin target for 2030.
Average month-end cash reached £216.2m and the order book increased 5% to a record £4.3bn. Galliford Try has already secured around 90% of projected revenue for the current financial year and 62% for FY28, giving the contractor substantial forward visibility despite uneven conditions across the wider construction market.
Infrastructure provided most of the revenue growth. Turnover increased 7.7% to £971.6m, while adjusted operating profit rose 25.2% to £34.3m. The division covers the group’s highways and environment operations, including water and specialist infrastructure activities, and benefited from highways delivery and the transition into the AMP8 investment cycle.
Building revenue fell 1.4% to £951.0m after delays in the conversion of some public-sector preferred-bidder positions pushed revenue into FY27. Profitability moved the other way: adjusted operating profit increased 17.8% to £33.1m and the divisional margin rose from 2.9% to 3.5%.
The Building order book increased 8.3% to £2.658bn. Galliford Try is concentrating the division on education, defence, custodial, health and affordable housing, alongside facilities management and decarbonisation work. Recent framework appointments include major education and affordable-housing programmes, giving the contractor access to longer-term public-sector pipelines rather than relying principally on one-off tenders.
The group’s wider strategy has placed similar emphasis on infrastructure sectors with regulated or government-backed expenditure. Water, highways, defence, education and other public programmes give greater visibility of future opportunity, although framework positions still require individual projects to reach award and mobilisation before they become delivered revenue.
That distinction is increasingly relevant in a market where contract awards and project starts are moving at different speeds. A large order book provides workload cover, but construction programmes remain exposed to client approvals, planning, design development and public spending timetables. Galliford Try’s current position reduces volume risk without removing the timing risk attached to major projects.
The company has also continued to invest in higher-margin specialist capabilities. Recent activity includes investment in pipe-fabrication capacity and the acquisition of Nene Valley Fire, extending the group into work that can sit alongside its mainstream building and infrastructure operations and provide a larger share of recurring maintenance or specialist-services income.
Chief executive Bill Hocking said the business had achieved a sixth consecutive year of growth, with revenue increasing 3% and adjusted profit and earnings per share rising by more than 20%. Galliford Try has attributed the improvement to contract selection, project delivery and strong cash generation rather than rapid expansion in turnover.
The capital position has allowed the group to raise the full-year dividend to 23.5p per share, an increase of 23.7%, while launching a further £15m share buyback. Those distributions sit alongside continued acquisition and organic investment, with management maintaining that balance-sheet strength is part of its approach to selecting contracts rather than chasing volume.
For the construction operation, the more relevant measure over FY27 will be whether the larger order book converts while the 3.5% divisional margin is maintained. Infrastructure currently provides the strongest revenue momentum, while Building has demonstrated that profit can rise even when turnover slips.
Galliford Try begins the new financial year with most of its expected revenue already covered and a larger Building order book than a year ago. That provides a comparatively firm workload base, but the next stage of its 2030 strategy depends on turning that visibility into project delivery without surrendering the commercial discipline that has driven the latest margin improvement.
