Galliford Try has powered through the first half with a 20% surge in pre-tax profit and margins edging closer to its 2030 target of 4%.

With 98% of this year’s orders in hand and improving markets in both building and infrastructure, the contractor said it expected full-year results to exceed market forecasts.

Pre-tax profit climbed by nearly 22% to £24m for the six months to 31 December 2025, on revenue up 1.3% to £935m.

Chief executive Bill Hocking said: “I’m most pleased to see real margin growth from 2.7% to 3.2% driven by our efforts to drive efficiencies across what we do.

“Our continuing strong performance and order book gives us confidence to raise our expectations for the full year to 30 June 2026. We will continue to focus on driving long-term value creation for all our stakeholders in our Sustainable Growth Strategy to 2030.”

“In addition to the transition to the AMP8 water programme and our continued framework and project successes, we also see further opportunities across all our chosen sectors.”

The group’s order book rose 5% to £4.1bn, with 80% of FY27 revenue already secured.

The order book in Building stands at £2.4bn, with 49% in defence and custodial, 19% in education and 14% in facilities management giving solid exposure to government-backed spend.

Infrastructure’s order book sits at £1.7bn, including £1.17bn in environment and £547m in highways, where the business has built up a strong workbook of local authority-driven road projects.

After the half-year, Galliford Try snapped up specialist contractor Nene Valley Fire & Acoustic for around £10m in cash.

The bolt-on deal of the £10m turnover business strengthens Galliford Try’s existing fire protection offering and builds a platform for nationwide growth.

Looking forward, Hocking said the building business would be buoyed by custodial, defence and education work and would shortly be anouncing it first big affordable housing job.

Infrastructure pipelines also look strong, with water AMP8 work expected to surge during the next two years.