Quarry group Breedon Aggregates, headed by Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom, trebles profits to £5.6m

Quarry firm Breedon Aggregates has more than trebled its annual profits during what the group said were the worst trading conditions in 50 years.

The company, in Breedon-on-the-Hill and headed by Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom, increased underlying pre-tax profits to £5.6 million in the year to December 31 from £1.5 million the previous year, despite a drop in demand from the construction industry.

Revenue rose by 2.7 per cent to £175.3 million.

Mr Tom, the executive chairman, said 2013 was set to be a challenging year, with construction output forecast to shrink again.

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He said: “I am pleased to report that, despite the worst trading conditions I can remember in my 50 years in this industry, Breedon Aggregates continued to grow and prosper in 2012.”

Breedon, the UK’s sixth-largest quarry group, operates 27 quarries, 18 asphalt plants and 40 ready-mixed concrete plants in England and Scotland, and employs about 800 people, including about 100 in Leicestershire.

Speaking to the Mercury yesterday, Tim Hall, chief executive of the group’s Breedon Aggregates England division, said the firm had performed strongly by supplying a broad variety of sectors and keeping its operations as local as possible.

“Our golden rule is to stay local, to try and keep central overheads to a minimum,” he said.

Mr Hall said the East Midlands could be a profitable area for the firm this year thanks to projects such as the expansion of East Midlands Airport’s terminal building, the A453 widening near Nottingham and the extension of Nottingham’s tram line.

“Green shoots are also starting to show in the region’s housing market so we remain cautiously optimistic for this year,” he said. company also put its growth down to the acquisitions of Nottingham Readymix in January and Rothes Glen quarry in Scotland in July.

The Construction Products Association has forecast construction output will fall by more than 2 per cent this year, with no meaningful recovery until 2014.

Mr Tom said: “Against this backdrop, it would be easy to let the gloom get the better of us, but we have a strong and finely-tuned business which is well equipped to cope with difficult economic conditions and we remain enthusiastically committed to growing the group in the years ahead.”