Spencer Engineering Group bosses remain confident despite £5.1m hit to results

FIRM SAID THE ONE-OFF IMPACT OF LOSSES HAD NOT HAMPERED FUTURE PROSPECTS

- By TOM KEIGHLEY

A FAILED investment in a green energy project on its home turf has not deterred bosses at Hull's Spencer Engineering Group, despite it causing pretax losses.

The world renowned firm took a £5.1m hit on the sale of the troubled Energy Works power plant at Cleveland Street, its latest accounts show.

But founder and CEO Charlie Spencer says the 36 year-old business is well placed to grow further, pointing to strong underlying performance and a boost to its order book and turnover.

Accounts covering the year to the end of March at Spencer Group show it swung to a pretax loss of £4.3m but operating profits before exceptional items grew from £979,000 to £1.38m.

The One Humber Quays-based group, which employs more than 300 people, saw turnover grow to £70m, an increase of 15 per cent, thanks to its success in securing and delivering high-value, multidisciplinary engineering projects.