Industrial group Hargreaves Services says it has seen a strong performance in part of its business thanks to HS2 works.
The County Durham-based firm gave a short trading update ahead of full year results, in which it said there had been increased revenues in its services division. There had also been a "better than expected" contribution from its German joint venture HRMS which is a supplier of raw materials and recycled metals, though smaller commodity prices meant a substantial year-on-year reduction.
Some delays in deals - including deferrals of transactions into next year - were pointed to in Hargreaves' land selling operation, which specialises in regeneration of former brownfield sites including ex-mining locations such as the Blindwells site in East Lothian. In January Hargreaves said sales of land from that flagship site had boosted revenue to £8.7m, from £5.9m the year previously.
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In its latest update to investors on the London Stock Exchange, the firm said cash reserves had been boosted to about £22m, up from £14m in 2022. That growth had come from repayment of a short term loan of £15m by HRMS.
Hargreaves said the gains had been offset by investment into its land assets and that leasing debt relating to specific operating plants was £37m, up from £18m, on the back of spending on plant machinery to support its large HS2 earthmoving contract.
Earlier this year the group hailed the impact of its HS2 work, which also includes some engineering and at its peak employed 400 people on the project. As part of the contract it has delivered a 650-metre long conveyor system to remove debris and cut out a significant number of journeys that would otherwise be made by diesel-fuelled HGVs.
The snaking construction includes three bridges, 800 tonnes of steel, 21km of cables and two high voltage substations. Hargreaves says the system is intended to reduce carbon emissions on HS2 by more than 5,000 tonnes. For its design and build work the firm scooped a key civil engineering award for project of the year in the best environmental and sustainable initiative category at the C23 awards.
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