yes. it wasn’t long ago that construction & fitout margins used to be a ‘healthy’ 6-10% depending on project value
now, common industry practice is to ‘go in cheap’ off the plans at say a 1-2% margin, then hope like d*ck that the Client changes their mind as they progress through the build and ping them 20-30% on any of the variations to make-up your lost margin
if the Client makes little or no changes, then you end up with ‘a lot of turnover’ for ‘not a lot of reward’ and you only need one subbie to stuff-up, something not to be delivered to site on-time or your PM to make a wrong calculation and then your suddenly working the job at a loss
consultants bringing out damage-lead contracts (which started to become really popular 10 years ago) that screw the builder over if they do not meet the construction program have not helped the industry at all
very sad to see what was once a very proud construction company in such a sorry state
until the industry changes the way it operates, there is always going to be that added risk to the builder
there is certainly some underlying value to be unlocked at Fletchers, but there is still perhaps a lot of pain to go through to get it…..
I hope things improve for holders & glad it did not hit my target price of 6 bucks back in Nov!
filthy