黑洞社区

SIG is moving out of its historical Sheffield home in Hillsborough and leaving its corporate head office in London鈥檚 Paddington next month as the building products supplier looks to cut costs and get the firm back into the black.

It comes as the firm said a probe into accounting irregularities at the business had found no more issues which last month saw it admit that profit booked in the last 18 months had been inflated by more than 拢6m.

SIG brought in KPMG to look into the allegations following claims made by a whistleblower at SIG Distribution 鈥� its insulation and interiors business.

In an update accompanying its latest results 鈥� which saw turnover in the year to 31 December 2017 remain flat at 拢2.9bn with pre-tax losses more than halving from 拢110m to 拢51m and underlying pre-tax profit up 4% to 拢79m  鈥� it said KPMG has now completed its review at SIG Distribution 鈥渨hich has identified no further material accounting cause for concern鈥�.

But heads are rolling with a number of employees 鈥渓eaving the business following disciplinary investigations into the circumstances鈥�. It added: 鈥淭he historical overstatements have been thoroughly investigated and reported and we have moved swiftly and decisively to address these serious matters.鈥�

The FTSE 250 firm, which provides insulation and roofing to sites up and down the country, said it has taken steps to restructure the business following the arrival of new chief executive Meinie Oldersma last April, including selling a number of businesses which last month saw it offload its loss-making offsite construction business to developer Urban Splash for 拢1.

It said management 鈥渉as restored customer focus by reducing the distraction from internal initiatives鈥� which it said included suspending the group鈥檚 Regional Distribution Centre programme and completing the roll-out of a new enterprise resource planning system across the UK businesses.

The rejig will also see it move out of its Hillsborough office, where the firm has been since setting up in the 1950s, and moving into smaller corporate offices.

SIG said that it has taken the axe to rising costs by cutting discretionary expenditure, scaling back group functions and stripping out layers of management including the UK & Ireland executive management team.

It said operating costs had begun to fall in the second half of last year, adding that it expected these to head further south throughout this year.

Oldersma said: 鈥淲e have begun to get a grip on operating costs and working capital and we have made significant steps in refocusing the portfolio, exiting from eleven businesses.鈥�

But he warned its UK business, which accounts for close to half of its business with a turnover of 拢1.4bn last year, had become more challenging in recent months following 鈥渞ecent events in the construction industry鈥�.

SIG said its RMI markets were subdued, while some commercial new build jobs had experienced delays to starting on site.