Colas Rail keeps margin at 6.9%

Colas Rail has maintained its margin and slightly improved its performance in all business areas.

The UK rail arm of the French multinational increased revenue to £425.8m in the year to 31 December 2024, newly published accounts show, delivering a pre-tax margin of 6.9 per cent for the second consecutive year.

Turnover increased from the £403.7m achieved in the prior year, which the firm said was in line with its expectations.

Some £286.4m of the revenue came from its construction business, amounting to 67 per cent of income. This was up from £281.9m in 2023.

Its freight and maintenance business unit made up the rest, with £139.4m, an increase from £121.7m in the prior year.

The firm made a £29.3m pre-tax profit in 2024, slightly up from £27.9m.

The company said its year-end order book reached £1.1bn with a secured pipeline of work to 2026. This marked a slight increase on the £958m achieved at the end of 2023.

Colas Rail employed an average of 1,434 people throughout the year, down 20 on the average number highlighted in its previous accounts, and spent £104m on wages in the year. The headcount stability followed growth from 1,342 in 2022.

Cash at hand rose from £15.9m to £24.1m in the latest accounts, but no shareholder dividends were paid.

The firm’s current liabilities included a £1.7m bank loan repayable within 12 months, and it also owed £11m in longer-term repayable loans.

Combined figures for Colas Rail and sister company Colas Ltd saw the firms rank 32nd in the CN100 2024 ranking of the largest UK contractors.

Following the period covered by the latest accounts, Colas Rail was awarded a £206.9m job from Network Rail to design, manufacture, install and test the overhead wiring system for the HS2 high-speed rail line.