Chairman and managing director, Andy Sewards said that client project sanction delays resulted in turnover coming in £30m below budget.

Despite more challenging market conditions, the family-owned contractor decided to avoid job cuts among its 226-strong workforce.

The slowdown was felt hardest at building and civil engineering contracting arm G F Tomlinson & Sons which posted a £3.2m loss on revenue almost halved at just £17m in the year to June 2022.

Sewards said: “Directors undertook to complete outstanding works and remedials on contracts in a positive manner to protect the GF Tomlinson name.

“During the year, substantial legal fees were incurred in agreeing the outstanding amounts due on two contracts.

“One of these contracts were concluded and saw an inflow of funds to the company.

“We have one further contract, which is the design stage which is being developed to bring it to a conclusion.

“Our aim is to recover the additional costs and fees from several subcontractors and a number of our supply chain.

In the accounts, he added: “The directors have also taken a view with regards to the increased costs of certain projects following on from the Covid pandemics due to price fluctuations and increases and have made provisions of £1m in these accounts for any additional costs that might be incurred.”

He said that the one upside of the slowdown in new orders meant that Tomlinson was protected from substantial price increases that could have caused the firm even more losses on projects in the next financial year.

GF Tomlinson Building continued to work with blue-chip framework partners with turnover rising 7% to £52m while incurring a loss of £410,000.

During the latter period of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the company cemented its position on three strategic public sector frameworks: Scape Regional Construction Framework, Pagabo’s National Framework for Medium Works and the Department of Education Framework.

G F Tomlinson said it now looked forward to the next 12 months with a greater emphasis on buoyant markets including education, healthcare and bespoke civic schemes being funded by central government initiatives such as the Towns Fund and the Levelling Up Agenda.

Over the year GF Tomlinson moved from a previous cash position to a £2.1m overdraft.