Newcastle-based building services firm Northern Bear plc said on Monday its revenue rose 24% to £61.1 million in the year to march 31, 2022, and adjusted operating profit rose to £2.6 million from £1.4 million.

The Northern Bear group includes 12 businesses across three divisions in Northern England. Its clients include local authorities, housing associations, NHS trusts, universities, construction companies and national house builders. 

On its supply chain and outlook, Northern Bear said: “It has been widely publicised that industry-wide challenges continue with respect to both the availability and price inflation for construction materials.

“Our companies have strong and well-established customer and supplier relationships and have been able, on the whole, to work with both groups to ensure continuity of supply for contracts and to pass on cost increases where possible.   

“However, we have seen some impact on our results and expect this situation could provide a short-term headwind to operations until industry supply and demand revert to more typical levels. 

“Our forward order book remains strong and should support our trading performance in the coming months, subject to potential supply chain challenges and the business-specific considerations noted in the trading statement above. 

“We regularly report that the timing of group turnover and profitability is difficult to predict despite the continued strong order book, and our results can also be volatile on a month to month basis. 

“We will continue to update shareholders with ongoing trading updates.”

Northern Bear chairman Jeff Baryshnik said: “We are pleased to announce strong operating results for the year ended 31 March 2022, despite the ongoing challenges facing our industry.

“It is a testament to the executive team and the subsidiary operating teams that FY22 operating results exceed those of the comparable pre-pandemic year ended 31 March 2020.”