We are proud to announce record sales of £155.8m in 2018 (2017: £148.6m) alongside pre-tax profits of £5.536m (2017: £5.441m) reporting five years of unbroken growth. We operate from 27 locations across the UK, with our head office being in Stoke-On-Trent and have earmarked £2m of our profit to support new investment in 2019. Planned projects include several digital transformation initiatives. Being a leading provider of maintenance and construction services to the social housing, university retail and hotel sectors, we are developing solutions that will integrate our IT systems with clients’ estate management software and property databases to automate internal processes. We have stepped up our investment into apprenticeships and trainees last year, employing 91 (2017: 65) and are funding the training of 20 quantity surveyors as we seek to address specific skill gaps in the business and  the wider industry’s talent pool. We employ 1,000 people nationally. To celebrate our fifth birthday in 2018 we delivered a nationwide, community-led campaign called ‘The Big Five’ donating £100,000 in time, labour and materials to support five community projects across the UK. The projects were just five of 340 social value initiatives we led last year, positively impacting 14,659 lives.  Our achievements were recognised in 2018 when we were presented with a National Award for Educational Partnership by Business in the Community (BITC). Earlier this year, we were listed among the top five fastest payers to its supply chain with an average of only 26 days against an industry average of 43 days. Five months into the current financial year, we are targeting further sustainable growth and have 90 per cent of our 2019 turnover target already secured. In February 2019, Alan Nixon was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer. Alan, was an existing member of the board and has worked with us – Novus was a part of Seddon Group until 2013 – for more than 30 years. Commenting on the 2018 financial results, Nixon said: “In a market beset with uncertainty, we had another year to be proud of. We grew revenues and profits sustainably as we achieved our business plan, while significantly strengthening our balance sheet so that we can continue to invest in innovation this year and over the long-term. “Novus, under the guidance of its chairman and fourth generation of the Seddon family, Stuart Seddon, was committed to being a responsible contractor that gave something back to its communities, long before it became a requirement in contract bids. We’re pleased to report strong data on our CSR investment alongside our trading performance.      “Our BITC Award and recent commendation for industry-leading payment practices all stem from our culture, which is rooted in being a family-owned business. Ensuring the principles that stem from this continue to guide how we operate, even as we scale the business, is an important objective for myself and the board.  “Looking ahead, the market remains tight. But, with our customer-centric approach and spend on exciting new digital innovations, we’re well placed to continue on our path of manageable growth.”

Manchester City weren’t the only ones to return from Wembley with a trophy last week, with the Novus Big Five – our flagship 2018 charity project – being named winner of the National Building Award for community engagement at the iconic stadium on 22nd May. Hosted at Wembley, the National Building Awards celebrate industrious, hardworking and enterprising construction businesses across the country. We were one of four finalists in the community engagement category, with judges commending our clear commitment to CSR on an ongoing basis at all levels of the business. The Big Five campaign was a milestone initiative conceived to celebrate our fifth anniversary by giving something back to the communities we work in.  The campaign saw us canvas nominations for worthy projects in five locations across the UK, which each benefited from a £20,000 refurbishment project. The project united our entire business towards a single CSR goal with projects selected to meet our corporate social responsibility (CSR) goal of helping to change lives. The award win is further evidence that our initiatives are some the best, most engaging and transformative in the sector. Each refurbishment project was chosen by our own team of judges and included refurbishments to a maternity ward, a house for a homeless person, two community centres and a rehabilitation centre for military veterans. You can read more about each of the projects here

We are pleased to annouce the appointment of Adrian Honeywell as our new Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ). Adrian has over 20 years’ experience as a senior health and safety professional in the construction industry including roles at Wrekin Construction, Nationwide Safety Services, May Gurney and Interserve Construction. During this time he has led health, safety and environment functions on frameworks for reactive and planned works, capital programme works and new-build developments. Adrian will report into chief executive Alan Nixon and work with our senior leadership team to devise and implement a long term SHEQ strategy, as well as leading the nine-strong SHEQ team. Adrian’s appointment is designed to cement our health and safety and environmental performance on projects – maintaining our track record while also improving the SHEQ support to operational teams and the wider business. Alan Nixon, chief executive, said: “Health and safety has always been a business priority for us and as a contractor that works in live environments that are often sensitive, delivering great quality outcomes while ensuring the safety of everyone on our sites is imperative for both us and our clients. “This new role combines these business support functions – helping us to achieve high performance standards while exceeding client expectations. Adrian’s experience at some of the largest players in the sector and his track record of helping build SHEQ into organisations’ cultures means he’s perfect for the role.”

The Novus Big Five, our flagship charity project, has been shortlisted in the National Building Awards, the annual celebration of the best of the construction industry. The Big Five campaign is one of four finalists in the community engagement category, with the winner due to be announced at an awards ceremony in May. For the initiative, we canvased nominations for worthy projects in five locations across the UK to each receive a £20,000 investment. The renovation projects that were chosen by our own team of judges included: Home refurbishment The conversion of a derelict two-bedroom house in Leeds into a modern property for a vulnerable person on behalf of Latch (Leeds Action to Create Homes). The charity reduces homelessness in the city by providing supported housing for those ready to make a positive change. Maternity ward refurbishment Refurbishments at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton created a new bereavement suite for parents who have sadly lost a child during birth for charities Abigail’s Footsteps and Oscar’s Wish. The work included the creation of an apartment at the hospital. Dudley Community Centre Refurbishment Refurbishment of a community centre in a primary school in Dudley, near Birmingham, resulted in the opening of a new learning hub for parents and children. The space now helps new parents and offers facilities for health checks as well as and a childcare centre during the summer holidays. Livingstone Community Centre Refurbishment Refurbishments at a community centre in Livingstone, Scotland, which provides courses and workshops for young people. The work included kitchen replacement and refurbishment and is designed to help provide young people with new skills while also acting as a distribution centre for food deliveries to people in need in the area. Rehabilitation Centre Refurbishment Refurbishments at a rehabilitation centre in Liverpool created a new office for Tom Harrison House – a charity that helps military veterans suffering from addiction. The new fully-heated garden office is used as a counselling room and will be used as part of the charity’s 12-week recovery programme. The resounding success of the project in supporting our corporate social responsibility (CSR), where our mission is to change the lives of people in communities where we work, and engaging with the community led to the shortlisting. It supports our view that our CSR initiatives are some of the best, most engaging and transformative in the sector. The National Building Awards programme aims to raise the profile of industrious, hardworking and enterprising building and construction businesses across the country. You can find out more about our CSR approach, here. To find out more about the awards, visit: https://www.nationalbuildingawards.co.uk/

We have secured three new refurbishment contracts with housing association Bromford totalling £16 million. The contracts include a £12 million programme of roofing upgrades across Bromford’s portfolio in the Midlands and South West, as the housing provider looks to provide the right home for every customer. We expect to refurbish more than 350 roofs-a-year under the five-year deal and will be completing works on a 200-home estate in Wolverhampton and supported housing schemes in Lichfield over the first twelve months. The project, which was awarded following a competitive tender process, is an extension of our six-year roofing contract with Bromford. The business has also been appointed to deliver a £2 million contract to upgrade the roofing at Bromford’s 90-home Waterloo estate in Gloucestershire, which will help the housing association to minimise future reactive maintenance costs. In a separate three-year agreement, we will be completing £2 million worth of fire-safety works in blocks of flats including sheltered accommodation. It includes fire door upgrades and projects to replace fire-stopping systems between storeys. Works are set to begin in January after Bromford finalises a comprehensive survey of fire systems across its estate. In addition to the roofing and fire safety works, we along with our supply chain are refreshing a local community centre in Gloucester as a pro-bono project. The wins build on our’ 10-year relationship with the housing association, which partnered with South West-based Merlin in July of last year before merging with Gloucestershire-based Severn Vale Housing in January. Its combined stock totals 44,000 homes and it has a planned development pipeline of £1.5bn for 14,000 new homes over the next decade. Lee Hartley, director at Novus, said: “Bromford is one of many long-standing relationships we have in the social housing sector. We provide local support through our network of offices but, as a national contractor, can provide scale to deliver projects quickly across multiple territories while ensuring the same high-quality standards. “We’re proud of our ability to retain major clients like Bromford for more than a decade. We’re quick to understand how these organisations work – their stock and what their customers expect – so that we can become an extension of their team. In addition, our commitment to volunteering and providing added value initiatives helps to transform lives beyond the improvement works to housing stock.” Russ Fowler, Bromford’s director of strategic asset management, said: “We have an excellent relationship with Novus and are pleased to be working in partnership with them as we look to make improvements to hundreds of existing homes as part of our aim to ensure that each customer can thrive by having a home that is safe, secure and warm.”

We’ve secured one of the UK’s leading certifications for public sector refurbishments as a result of our exceptional client liaison and customer relationship work. The Tpas accreditation recognises contractors who carry out planned and reactive maintenance works to local authorities and housing associations to the very highest standards. Tpas is England’s leading tenant engagement organisation, made up of local residents and landlord organisations managing a total of 2.2 million homes around the country. For more information about Tpas read here: https://www.tpas.org.uk/about-tpas The award is testament to the hard work of our staff who go above and beyond in their communities when it comes to delivering planned and reactive refurbishment projects, whether through picking up shopping for vulnerable residents or hosting skills workshops. We passed all six sections of the testing criteria. These include ensuring community engagement and customer care is strongly embedded within our team, taking an economically and socially-active approach to community investment and training our employees to be skilled and engaged when dealing with residents. The accreditation also includes driving success by listening and responding to client and resident concerns, gauging tenant satisfaction and acting upon the findings to improve our services. Tpas’ overall results concluded that we demonstrated the ability to uphold and deliver on the highest expectations for quality customer care and community engagement. Kevin Rhone, head of social value and customer service at Novus, said: “Delivering the highest standards possible in customer care is incredibly important to everyone at Novus, but we wanted something that rubberstamps our commitment. “The Tpas accreditation does that. By passing all the criteria set out by the organisation with flying colours, our staff have yet again shown they’re a cut above when it comes to engaging with our communities.”