Small Works  ·  Performance Report  ·  Mar – Jul 2026

Marton Mills

Washroom refurbishment  ·  Leodis Developments Ltd

Turnover

£29,758

Duration

5 months

Own labour

19.5 days

Status

Complete

Profitable A strong 36.5% gross margin on a job built mostly through subcontracted labour and trades. Own engineers were a minor input at 19.5 days, so the result rests on the subcontracted works rather than on own labour productivity. The profit landed late, which is the one thing worth acting on for the next job of this type.

Gross profit

£10,874

36.5% of turnover

Turnover

£29,758

Single contract

Own labour

19.5 days

21% of cost of sales

Subcontracted works

£7,774

41% of cost of sales

1

Financial outcome

Actuals
Turnover£29,757.71
Cost of sales(£18,883.73)
Gross profit£10,873.98
Gross profit margin36.5%

No priced build up was captured for this job, so there is no tendered margin to measure against. The result is stated on actuals only. Capturing the estimate on the next small work would let us show buying gain and priced against actual.

2

How the job was built

Delivery and cost mix

The job was delivered through a blend of your own engineers, subcontracted labour and specialist trades, with the materials bought by Leodis. Own labour was the smaller part. The mix below shows where the cost of sales went.

Own labour £3,900 · 20.7% Subcontracted works £7,774 · 41.2% Materials and hire £7,210 · 38.2%
Own labour 
Engineers payroll · 19.5 days£3,900.00
Subcontracted works 
Subcontract labour · CIS / YKBS£3,855.00
Decorator, plastering, sealant · DRC£1,779.81
Floor design£2,138.82
Materials and hire 
Parts purchased£4,876.02
Sanitaryware£2,048.13
Scissor lift hire£285.95
Total cost of sales£18,883.73
Own employed labour (£3,900) almost exactly matched the subcontracted labour (£3,855). Roughly half the site labour was your own engineers and half was subcontracted, worth deciding deliberately rather than by default on the next washroom job.
3

Duration and drag

Gross profit across the job

Total gross profit

£10,874

Earned over the whole job

Gross profit per month

£2,175

Average across 5 active months

Time on the books

5 months

Mar – Jul 2026

Own labour content

19.5 days

Under 4 working weeks

Marton Mills returned a healthy total profit, but it took five months to earn it. Averaged across the active months that is about £2,175 of gross profit a month, on roughly a month of labour content spread across five calendar months. The same margin earned in a shorter programme is worth more to the business, for three reasons.

Cash comes first, and it bites harder on small works than on a major. The subcontractors used on these jobs are smaller firms who will not wait for month end plus thirty days the way they would on a large contract, so cash goes out to them quickly while the client's payment still lags behind. The longer the job runs, the wider that gap between fast cash out and slow cash in, so closing it sooner is what keeps the position positive.

Second is management and supervision attention. A job that stays open for months keeps drawing office time, valuations, supervision and chasing, all out of proportion to its size. Closing it releases that bandwidth for bigger, better paying work.

Third is margin protection. The longer a job runs the more it is exposed to scope creep, client changes and hazy recollection by the time you reach final account and snagging. Momentum protects the margin that was priced.

Much of a washroom refurbishment's calendar span is structural, the trade sequencing, drying and curing times, subcontractor diaries, client access windows and material lead times. This is a case for compressing duration where it can be, not a judgement that this job was stalled.

4

Lessons and actions

For the next small work
Subcontracted model worked. A 36.5% margin was delivered with own labour as a minor input. On washroom works this delivery model is repeatable.Action: keep specialist trades packaged out where quality allows.
Capture the estimate next time. With no priced build up we cannot yet say whether the margin came from good buying or was simply priced in.Action: save the tender on the next small work so buying gain can be measured.
Compress the programme. Roughly a month of labour content ran across five calendar months, and the cash and attention cost of that sits with small works more than majors.Action: plan small works as a focused block. Order long lead items at award, book trades to dates, and agree client access up front.
Marton Mills  ·  Small works performance report  ·  Prepared July 2026  ·  Source: Xero profit and loss  ·  Confidential