Sydenhams Ltd posts £8.3m annual pre-tax profit

Sydenhams, which operates a network of timber and builders’ merchants, timber engineering sites, hire centres and kitchen showrooms, saw the profits decrease by 49% from £16.3m in the previous financial year. 

Annual sales were £95.3m (2022: £106.5), while it ended the financial year with net assets of £48.1m.

In April 2022, Sydenhams acquired the entire share capital of M’s Building Supplies Ltd for £1.9m, while in December, 2022, Guernsey Building Supplies acquired a larger site to allow for expansion of the business in 2023-24. A sum of £4.65m was paid for the site.

“During the previous year [2022] the group benefited from exceptional industry-wide factors that arose as a result of the global pandemic and the subsequent high demand for materials,” director Jeremy Clark wrote in the company’s publicly available accounts.

“These exceptional circumstances had largely run their course by the start of the [financial] year ending March 31, 2023.The elevated level of home refurbishments carried out during the pandemic had subsided and there were again greater opportunities to travel abroad for holidays, reducing domestic spending. 

“In addition, the increased cost of living pressure from price inflation and significant interest rate rises were weighing on spending on major home improvement projects. Consequently, the sector has returned to more normal levels of market activity.”

Sydenhams was established in 1874 by James Thomas Sydenham in Poole, Dorset, where the company still imports timber today. 

The business has a network of 32 branches, while its timber engineering sites in Wickham and Newport (IOW), can design and manufacture I-joists, Easi-joists, roof trusses and timber frame buildings.