Shed and multi-room building contractor Winvic saw pre-tax profits fall for the first time after two jobs secured before the pandemic ran into loss.

Pre-tax profit nosedived a third to £10.5m in the year to January 2023 as the more challenging market also eroded margins.

But revenue at the group, which has also diversified into civils and infrastructure work, continued to rise steeply jumping 18% to £1.22bn.

This also improved the group’s net cash position, which continued to strengthen to £131m from around £79m just two years ago.

Managing director Simon Girardier forecast that revenue would slip back next year to £950m as the economy slowed.

He said: “The business has included losses within these results on two major projects secured prior to the Covid 19 pandemic.

“These projects suffered from the effect of Covid and high levels of inflation on costs.

“The business believes it has now written these projects back to a secure position.

“While increasing interest rates are still putting pressure on materials prices, they are also having an impact on reducing the demand for industrial units in the marketplace.”

This has impacted Winvic’s forward order book which stands at £1.26bn down from £1.69bn at the same time on the year before.