Essex-based contractor Lakehouse has posted a £31.7m operating loss for the year to 30 September 2016.
This compares to a pretax profit of £3.2m from a year earlier. Construction revenue fell to £52.1m from £73.4m, following delays caused by clients moving from single to two-stage procurement.
The company has been hit with a number of problems over the last year, including problem contracts in its Property Services division and the cost of a corporate restructuring.
Results also showed the Compliance, Energy Services and Construction divisions all made underlying profits, but overall figures were hit by charges from problem contracts in Property Services, which forced the company to exit from some markets.
A total of £43.2m was also racked up in exceptional items, which also damaged the 2016 accounts.
They included £6.6m in contract losses on property maintenance deals and a £17.4m write down on the goodwill of contracts operated by the Foster housing maintenance arm.
The company also spent £1m on making 100 staff redundant and £1.5m paying off former directors.
Chairman Bob Holt joined the firm as non-executive chairman in July last year, after the exit of chief executive Sean Birrane in March and the resignation of former chairman Stuart Black.
Lakehouse founder Steve Rawlings, who returned to the board in April 2016, passed away in July.
Despite the troubling year, Holt said he remained optimistic about the next 12 months. He said: “It has been a challenging year for Lakehouse but one we believe will prove to be transformational, having focused on reviewing the strategy of the group, stabilising operational performance with a view to improvement and controlling costs at every level, whilst retaining a high quality of client service.
“We have taken tough decisions to exit some business streams within property services alongside bringing in a new management team to stabilise operations in the remainder of the division and reset the dial.”
He added that the core businesses of compliance, energy services and construction were well established, “excellent” businesses which have a clear vision of what needs to be delivered.
