A bad time to bank on cutting costs to make up for cut-price bidding
The latest pan-industry construction trade survey put together by the Construction Product Association paints a bleak picture for the months ahead, as falling workload and prices combine with cost inflation to squeeze firms’ already pressured profits. How ironic that seems after the industry enjoyed one of its best ever years of growth in 2010. But the trade survey suggests that profit margins have been under significant pressure since the credit crunch in the autumn of 2007. And it would seem…