Munnelly Banks £181m Turnover and Plots Acquisitions for 2030 Plan

Turnover at Munnelly Group rose 9% to £181m in the year to March 2026, and the family-owned construction site services business plans to spend that momentum on acquisitions during 2026-28. Pre-tax profit climbed 15% to £1.8m over the same period.

The results anchor a new strategy the group calls Target 2030, a growth plan designed to pull its eight businesses closer together and win work spanning pre-construction through to project handover. Directors framed the shift bluntly: "The Group has grown over many years as a collection of successful individual businesses, each with its own reputation in its own market."

The plan's stated aim, in the directors' words: "Target 2030 is about making the whole worth more than the sum of its parts, for our clients, our people and our shareholders."

Who is driving the change?

The strategy follows last year's handover of the chief executive role from founder Phil Munnelly to his son Paul David, with Phil stepping up to chairman. The younger Munnelly inherits a group that has expanded far beyond its site logistics roots into technology, surveying, consultancy, access control, security, recruitment and payroll.

The task now is converting that spread of services into more work for the whole group, backed by targeted acquisitions during 2026-28.

Which markets is Munnelly targeting?

The group aims to build on decades of relationships with major contractors and is targeting several regulated sectors:

• Energy
• Water
• Nuclear
• Defence
• Prison expansion

The pivot toward longer-term contracts is already underway. Munnelly secured new multi-year programmes across the custodial and justice estate, expanded its role on major rail renewals and upgrades, and strengthened its foothold in transport, aviation and regulated infrastructure.

What do the numbers say about the business?

Operating margin remained tight at 0.9%, squeezed by rising costs and the high-volume, low-margin nature of much of the group's work. That figure explains the strategy as clearly as any slide deck: £181m of revenue produced £1.8m of pre-tax profit.

The board is responding by tightening commercial discipline and setting minimum margin expectations across its businesses as it pursues better-paid specialist work.

The balance sheet gives the group room to act. Munnelly enters its next growth phase with £7.8m in cash and no bank borrowings, an unusual position for a contractor of its scale and one that removes a common constraint on dealmaking.

What happens next?

Trading in the opening months of the new financial year ran in line with expectations, with sales ahead as Munnelly widens its client base and secures longer-running work. For contractors and specialists watching from outside, the group's move signals where the steadier money is heading: multi-year frameworks in energy, water, nuclear, defence and the custodial estate rather than volume work at sub-1% margins.