The setback wiped out the employee-owned groundwork and demolition firm’s £5.3 million profit from the previous year. Turnover also fell 11% to £134 million from £151 million in the year to November 2025.
McGee said an exceptional bad debt was responsible for the loss and masked a stronger underlying performance. Excluding the impact, the company’s EBITDA margin rose to 6.5%, compared with 6.3% in 2024.
Reported EBITDA margin, however, fell to just 1.2%.
The results were also affected by delays to the start of several projects. These delays left the contractor under-recovering support costs and operating with lower efficiency across plant, haulage and central functions.
Despite the challenging year, McGee ended November with £13.3 million in cash, down from £16 million previously.
The business said it remained debt-free apart from normal equipment financing. It also maintained a 98% on-time payment record for suppliers.
McGee is now targeting a return to its previous profit levels as delayed projects begin and its growing pipeline turns into new workload.
The contractor remains focused on London and the wider M25 market. Recent project awards include work at Heathrow Airport, 50 Baker Street and within the data centre sector.
The company has also secured a major but unnamed West End project. The scheme will draw on McGee’s expertise in complex basement and below-ground construction.
The accounts said more clients are bringing McGee Consult’s engineering team into projects at an earlier stage. The team helps clients address planning, logistics and buildability challenges.
This earlier involvement is improving visibility over future workload while allowing McGee to remain selective about the projects it takes on.
Group managing director Bernard O’Reilly said: “We enter the year ahead with confidence, a resilient platform and a continued focus on delivering certainty for our clients through our integrated engineering solutions.”
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