County Durham firm Banks Group saw profits fall 44% as the end of its coal mining operations, delayed planning permissions and disruptions caused by Covid impacted its bottom line.
The renewable energy, property, mining and transport firm has posted results for the year ended September 30 2021 which show a fall in combined operating profit from £26m to £18m.
But it said it is continuing its transition into a growing range of business areas, with the loss of revenue from its mining business being made up by earnings from its property and renewables businesses, which are expected to perform strongly in 2022.
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The family-owned employer filed results through Banks Group Holdings for the 53 weeks ended October 1 2021, which showed turnover of £19.3m compared to the previous year’s £39.6m.
But it said consolidated group accounts – combining all of the family firm’s enterprises – showed turnover of £67m, down from the previous period’s £96m.
Banks Renewables’ total energy generation capacity stands at 223MW, a figure set to increase to nearly 300MW with the start of generation at its Kype Muir Extension wind farm in South Lanarkshire before the end of 2022. Its renewable energy business also increased its pipeline of onshore wind farms under development through the year and has a potential additional capacity of over 400MW across four further sites in Scotland.
Banks is also looking to bring forward additional energy technologies, including solar energy, battery storage and flexible power generation, and was granted planning permission last year for the 50MW Barnsdale solar energy park to the south east of Leeds.
Banks Property’s year-on-year sales of consented land for housebuilding was affected by local authority delays in determining planning applications, but increased marginally from £2.5m in 2020 to £3.7m in 2021. Sales for 2022 are already ahead of 2021 levels.
Turnover from the firm’s mining division reduced from £29.8m in 2020 to £6.4m, following the end of coal production and the sale of the company’s last 360,000 tonnes of coal.
Banks secured its first external non-coal contract late last year, taking over as principal contractor to mine gypsum for Saint-Gobain Formula from their Bantycock Quarry near Newark, and is looking to win further mining and earthworks contracts.
Simon Fisher, group finance director at The Banks Group, said: “As expected, the performance of our business in 2021 was transitionary in nature, with the end of our coal mining operations, project delays caused by the Covid pandemic and planning permissions taking longer to be obtained. However, the Board believes that the Group remains well placed to deliver strong growth in the coming years.
“Development work continues to proceed apace to bring forward new onshore wind farms, two of which already have planning consent, and with renewable technologies including solar power, battery storage and small-scale flexible power generation under development, Banks Renewables is well positioned to increase its contribution to the UK’s journey towards its Net Zero targets in the coming years.
“We are extremely proud of what our coal mining business achieved over the 46 years from its formation to its closure in providing valuable skilled employment for many people at the same time as delivering long-term economic and social benefits to the many communities which have hosted our projects. We are now applying our mining resource including our people’s skill base to develop opportunities in areas other than coal mining.”
The group continued to support local community groups and environmental projects by awarding 91 community grants totalling over £368,000 from the funds linked to its different operational and planned developments during the year.
