Profits at a building contractor which looks after council-owned houses, vehicles and street lights in Hull rose last year.
KWL, based in Kingswood, is owned by Hull City Council and responsible for managing a range of services across the city.
Its roles include property servicing for around 25,000 council houses in Hull, repairing the city’s 35,000 street lights, and maintaining the council’s near-600 strong fleet of vehicles.
In the 2018/19 financial year, turnover at KWL rose from £17.2m to £19.5m, with profits before tax up from £459,887 to £559,497.
Daren Hale, a director at KWL, said in recently-filed accounts: “The core business is the provision of property services to approximately 25,000 homes in the Hull area, including the servicing and maintenance of domestic gas appliances in over 21,000 properties.
“The business procures and maintains over 590 vehicles for the authority…In addition, KWL services and repairs 35,000 street lights in Hull.”
KWL said in recent years, significant investment had been made into replacing part of the council’s vehicle fleet.
Last year, KWL said it had replaced 97 vehicles at a cost of £4.3m. It followed that up with a further 78 vehicles this year, worth another £1.15m.
The business has also fitted solar panels to its head office in Kingswood, which now generate half of KWL’s electricity needs.
Looking ahead, KWL directors said they hoped to increase the amount of work the company did outside of its council contracts. Currently, 96 per cent of KWL’s work is council-related.
Mr Hale said: “The business continues to seek growth away from the core business with the authority, and KWL’s long-term target is for 15 per cent of turnover and profit to be from substantive activity outside of our local authority contracts…”
KWL also said it hoped to take on new staff in the coming years, having already increased its number of employees from 418 to 447 in the last year.
The contractor also took on more apprentices in 2018/19, and said it was keen to further develop this aspect of the business in years to come.
Outside of its council contracted work, KWL offers a variety of services to homeowners, including roof repairs and plumbing work, to property refurbishments.
