NG Bailey IT Services bets on smart buildings as sales plateau

Cisco Gold partner reveals it has won £50m deal with Fujitsu as annual sales pull up short of previous year's tally

NG Bailey IT Services has talked up its ambitions for the smart buildings sector after posting a slight dip in annual sales.

The Cisco Gold partner broke the £60m revenue barrier in the 2014/15 financial year, but said it recorded sales of almost £60m for the 12 months ending 26 February 2016.

NG Bailey has three main arms focusing on the traditional building sector, infrastructure such as rail and nuclear and services, the latter of which is split into facilities and IT.

The group as a whole saw operating profit increase year on year from £2.3m to £6m, with sales rising 12 per cent to £408m.

The key focus for the IT services arm centres on smart buildings, an area in which Bob Dunnett, managing director of NG Bailey's IT services division (pictured), says the firm has amassed a strong position.

"To say we're ahead of the curve would be a bit conceited, [but] I think we're certainly in a unique position," he said.

"As a group there isn't another organisation that can offer the installation of the kit [and] the opportunity to put the smart building infrastructure in at that point. We then have the IT services dimension which cables it all together and then a facilities service that looks after it.

"I'd say we're in on the curve and in a unique position."

Highlights of the year for IT services at NG Bailey included winning a £50m contract with Fujitsu to deliver global connectivity services for the Ministry of Defence over the next five years.

Despite being quietly optimistic for the future, Dunnett admitted that one uncertainty cannot be ignored.

"There is one factor that hangs over all of this and that is Brexit, which is unclear," he said.

"Assuming we don't get any big impacts from that in the short term - and I'm not sure we will - I think we're going to have a good year.

"There is a change in circumstance which isn't clear, so you've just got to have that little bit of agility in your mind - just that little bit of care and thought."