NRW announces record profit

In recent years, NRW has gone from strength to strength and in late February NRW Holdings Limited (ASX: NWH) announced a record half year net profit after tax of $45.3 million, up 123% on the previous corresponding period. The revenue generated for the first half was $610.4 million, a 72% increase and representative of our strong growth.

This increase in revenue is primarily due to the ramp up of our five year Middlemount Coal mining contract in Queensland, Fortescue Metals Group’s Solomon Project and the continued strong demand for civil infrastructure in the iron ore sector in Western Australia. Action Drill & Blast, NRW’s newest subsidiary, also performed very well in the period with a 354% increase in revenue to $50.9 million.

At NRW we pride ourselves on having strong ties with our clients including Rio Tinto Iron Ore, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Middlemount Coal and Fortescue Metals Group. Our unique combination of hard work, dedication and these steadfast relationships resulted in over two thirds of NRW’s current civil workload being negotiated rather than tendered, a rarity in the industry and something we are very proud of.  

Jules Pemberton, NRW’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, said “NRW is focused on delivering repeat quality work to our clients, and it is on the strength of our proven expertise and relationships that we have managed to achieve a 69% increase in our civil division revenue, an outstanding result”.

NRW’s Mining Division also showed improved margins compared to prior year performance with the addition of new projects Solomon and Middlemount. We also expect further margin improvement with full utilisation of equipment, subject to adverse weather or unforeseen events.

With these successes, our workforce has increased steadily and we now employ a workforce of 3,837 (including direct employees, subcontractors and apprentices). Our fantastic HR team employed 885 employees in 2011 alone, an extraordinary achievement. 

We all know how important safety is and NRW continues to invest in health and safety training and process improvement. In February 2012, we introduced a new safety culture program, titled A safe day. Every day. The Group’s total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) experienced a significant improvement, dropping from 12.03 at 30 June 2011 to 5.27 at January 2012.

NRW remains focused on our strategy of servicing our existing blue chip customer base in the key markets of iron ore and coal whilst actively pursuing additional opportunities in the oil and gas sector further to the Wheatstone contract award, as well as other key commodities.

With these opportunities comes an opportunity for another 500 people to join NRW’s workforce, in roles such as heavy duty fitters, experienced all round operators – in particular dozer drivers – and production excavator operators. If you are interested in applying for one of these roles, want to see other positions we have on offer, or would just like to find out more, head to the NRW website, www.nrw.com.au/careers.

To find out more about Action Drill & Blast and to apply for a job with Australia’s fastest growing drill and blast contractor, visit www.actiondb.com.au

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