{"id":533648,"date":"2025-12-01T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=533648"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:25:13","slug":"cn-specialists-index-2025-top-10-fit-out-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/financial\/cn-specialists-index-2025-top-10-fit-out-contractors-01-12-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"CN Specialists Index 2025: top 10 fit-out contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Sindall subsidiary Overbury remains the runaway leader in Construction News<\/em>\u2019 second annual fit-out index, reporting revenue of \u00a31.16bn and a 6.1 per cent pre-tax margin.<\/p>\n

Across the top 10, eight firms increased sales and boosted their pre-tax profits. Overall revenue rose by 14 per cent to \u00a32.48bn and the combined profit more than doubled from \u00a376m to \u00a3161.9m.<\/p>\n

Reflecting this overall trend, BW Interiors\u2019 turnover rose 22 per cent to \u00a3244m, delivering a profit of \u00a36m. And Structure Tone saw a 31 per cent revenue surge but its margin was short of 1 per cent.<\/p>\n

Willmott Dixon Interiors staged a major comeback, swinging from a \u00a325.7m loss into a \u00a34.8m profit with a margin over 3 per cent. Towards the bottom end of the table, Oktra\u2019s turnover flatlined at \u00a3112.5m.<\/p>\n

Tenth-placed Portview, and Collins Construction in seventh, were new entrants. Collins\u2019 revenue fell by 15 per cent, though its pre-tax margin remained stable. Portview had the fastest revenue growth (48 per cent), ahead of Morgan Lovell (42 per cent).<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t all sweetness and light. There was one loss-maker \u2013 8Build \u2013 with a \u00a31.2m pre-tax deficit from stable revenue of \u00a3122.9m. And BW Interiors and Oktra saw their turnover fall year on year, by \u00a316.2m and \u00a31.1m respectively.<\/p>\n

The insolvency of ISG in September last year has had a \u201cdistorting impact on the figures\u201d, according to Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) chief executive Iain McIlwee. ISG had \u201cabout 500\u201d live fit-out projects worth \u00a34.5bn when it went under, he says. Some of these jobs have been picked up by other firms \u201cbut there\u2019s more to come through, because a lot of those [ex-ISG jobs] are still delayed and aren\u2019t back on site yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Higher overall profits and business opportunities from ISG\u2019s demise helped the median margin expand from 1.6 per cent to 2.4 per cent, although this was skewed by Portview\u2019s 26 per cent. Fit-out\u2019s median margin trailed behind all the other specialisms in this year\u2019s index apart from M&E (2.3 per cent).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people are targeting profits of less than 2 per cent [margin] but the bad jobs are pulling down the good jobs,\u201d McIlwee tells CN<\/em>. \u201cTender times are still very tight so businesses are absorbing a lot more risk, and we\u2019re not really pricing risk in well enough to the way that we\u2019re delivering construction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The top 10 companies in:<\/h3>\n