What happened

Ipswich-headquartered One Group Construction reported turnover up 7% to £217.5m for the year to December 2025, Construction News and Construction Wave reported this week, up from £203.2m the year before. The growth came almost entirely from civil engineering: revenue at its Jackson subsidiary rose from £144m to £162m, while building and construction revenue at SEH French fell 10% to £33.8m from £37.7m.

Profit told a different story. Operating profit dropped 24% to £8.7m and pre-tax profit fell to £9.1m from £12m, with the group's margin narrowing from 5.9% to 4.2%. The group, which has nine subsidiaries, said controlled organic growth remains the bedrock of its strategy but that it continues to look to expand and explore new opportunities, adding that its resilience depends on a diverse mix of subsidiary businesses.

Why it matters

This is a familiar pattern across the sector this year: revenue climbing while margins get squeezed by cost pressure and competitive tendering. What stands out here is the split within the group. Civil engineering is doing the heavy lifting while general building and construction work contracts, a reminder that infrastructure and groundworks-adjacent work is holding up better than general building across much of the regional market. One Group's secured order book stood at more than £140m at the end of the second quarter, giving it reasonable visibility even as margins tighten.

What it means for your career

For quantity surveyors and commercial staff in East Anglia, the message from these numbers is that civils is where the volume is. Jackson's growth from £144m to £162m in a single year is a meaningful jump for a regional operator, and groups this size tend to hire commercial and estimating staff to match order book growth rather than waiting until they are stretched.

The profit squeeze is worth noting too if you are negotiating a move: firms under margin pressure often lean harder on commercial discipline, so quantity surveyors with strong cost control and subcontractor management experience are likely to be valued more than ever at a business like this. With the group talking openly about expansion and exploring new opportunities, it is worth a direct approach if you are based in Suffolk, Norfolk or Essex and have civil engineering experience, particularly given how much less it is currently investing in general building work.