Mace reports record profits in 2021

Mace has today (28 September 2022) published its 2021 annual accounts, reporting the largest profit in its history despite the economic challenges imposed by the global pandemic.

2021 represented Mace’s 31st consecutive year of profitability, resulting in profit before taxation of £38.3m, (£16.7m in 2020). Over the year, the Group achieved an overall turnover of £1.9bn in 2021, up from £1.7bn in 2020.

At the beginning of 2021, Mace launched a new strategy which set out to redefine the business as purpose-led, underpinned by three priorities and new targets for 2026. Across the first year of the strategy the business made a number of significant strides towards its targets – reducing carbon emissions by 11.6%, reducing the mean gender pay gap by more than 10% and investing 2.5% (£48m) of revenue in research and development.

Mace’s Consult business achieved record growth, reaching £366m (an 7.1% increase on 2020) and raising headcount to 3,866. Despite project timescales being impacted by COVID-19, Mace’s Construct business also saw significant growth with revenue recorded at £1.5bn (up from £1.2bn in 2020) and accounting for 76% of the Group’s total turnover.

For the second year in a row, Mace also today published its ESG Report, detailing the business’s performance against our Environmental, Social and Governance objectives. The business has announced it was net neutral carbon for the second year in a row, reducing overall emissions by 11.6% and offsetting more than 12,000 tonnes of carbon with gold-standard offset schemes around the world. 

Other key highlights in 2021:

• International activities contributed £485m of Group revenue (up from £483m in 2020).
• The Group recorded a net cash position of £127m (up from £25m in 2020).
• Across its global operations, Mace achieved a 0.06 Accident Frequency Rate, reflecting a reduction in the number of health and safety incidents across the business. 
• Invested £48m in research & development, equivalent to 2.5% of overall revenues.
• Mace also delivered more than £382m of construction revenue through its construction management work, not included in the overall revenue figure for the Group.
• The Mace Foundation made donations of £320k (£278k in 2020) to charitable causes in 2021.
• It should be noted that, due to a change in accounting policy in 2021, prior years have been restated and recorded as adjustments.

The business continued to deliver many major projects including Battersea Power Station in London, critical infrastructure reconstruction in Peru, Expo 2020 in Dubai, as well as the National Satellite Test Facility at Harwell in the UK and The Rosalind Franklin Institute, a national research institute dedicated to developing new technologies to tackle health research challenges.

Mace also generated more than £536.5m Value2Society, a metric that measures the social value that the organisation produces through its work around the world – marking significant progress towards the target of £700m by 2026. 

Mark Reynolds, Mace’s Chairman and Group Chief Executive, said:

“2021 was another challenging year for the construction industry, with the on-going disruption of Covid-19. However, our 2026 Business Strategy proved exceptional in supporting growth across our sectors, services and geographies. I would like to thank our clients and supply chain for their support and acknowledge the huge contribution of our fantastic colleagues to Mace’s record performance in 2021.” 

“Being a purpose-led business has enabled us to push ourselves harder to do the right thing and it’s transforming how we work. Our people are empowered to challenge each other every day to find a better way and as a result we’re developing innovative solutions, pushing the boundaries of sustainable delivery and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. 

“We’ve built on that success in 2022, adapting our approach and strategy to reflect fast-changing global market conditions. The continued uncertainty caused by the Russian invasion in Ukraine, energy price increases and more recently currency fluctuations is proving challenging for everyone – however, through industry collaboration and championing better ways of working we are confident that 2022 will be another record year.”