Foreword

Once again, the ABRT is lucky to have expert Stephen Barnes RTP® provide some thoughtful insight, commentary and his professional opinion on this week’s media announcement concerning ASIC statistics – specifically, those in relation the construction industry. The new data shows Australian businesses are failing at the highest rate since before the pandemic began.

It is worth noting that Australia is not alone. Other jurisdictions, such as England & Wales, are also finding an increase in business failures following the end of their own COVID Government support programmes. More companies in England and Wales were voluntarily liquidated in March 2023 than at any point since monthly pandemic records began three years ago. Christina Fitzgerald, the president of the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 stated that business owners have “spent three years trading through a pandemic and economic uncertainty, and an increasing number are choosing to shut their businesses before that choice is taken away from them”.

Figures released by ASIC this week show 831 businesses appointed external administrators or had controllers appointed in March, the highest monthly reading since July 2019. That’s a 20% uptick from February, but a 79% increase since March 2022, which saw a comparatively low 464 business collapses.

First time a company enters external administration or has a controller appointed, by industry

Chart: Financial Review  Source: ASIC – * Financial year to Apr 2

So far this financial year, 1,601 construction-related firms have called in the administrators or had a controller appointed, double the 808 accommodation and food services businesses to have collapsed in the same timeframe.

Construction companies, building firms and skilled trades in the building industry, once again, remain the hardest hit according to this latest ASIC data.

This demonstrates that the surge of pandemic-era demand was undercut by massively inflated material costs, supply chain hold-ups, and difficulty sourcing appropriately skilled workers to catch up with, what is best described as, ‘a major work backlog’.

Eddie Griffith RTP | ABRT Chairman

Thanks again to colleague Stephen Barnes for your pertinent, timely commentary and expert professional opinion on what ‘has been, is and will be’ a serious issue continues to impact Australia’s economy.

Eddie Griffith RTP® | ABRT Chairman

Construction Industry Woes

Stephen Barnes RTP®

The financial woes of the construction industry in Australia are getting a fair amount of media attention at the moment, especially in Melbourne where there have been several large volume building companies fall over and be placed into administration. 

There seems to me to be a high level of surprise.  Surprise that big firms are going bust.  Surprise at the perceived and/or real deceptions by the owners/directors/industry. Surprise that this situation could even occur.

But the real story began several years ago and without meaning to say, “I told you so”, I had been predicting this very situation, so what has occurred is definitely no surprise to me at all. The construction industry has for many, many years been the leading industry in Australia for formal insolvency actions. 

Pre pandemic the nationwide number of insolvency cases for construction industry companies averaged around 1,700 per annum.  This amounted to between 20-25% of all insolvency cases in Australia annually.  However, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Stephen Barnes RTP®

Construction & Building Industry Failure Statistics

There are over 425,000 construction businesses in Australia of which over 95% small businesses (under $5m turnover).  In Victoria at the end of June 2022 there were 127,370 construction and building firms according to Master Builders Victoria.  Of these 62.7% were sole traders not companies.  This is an important fact for two reasons.

• The construction industry insolvency statistics are only on the 37.3% of construction businesses in a company structure.  Almost the all the remainder are sole trader businesses. Extrapolating the insolvency statistics over the number of constructions companies just over 1% enter formal insolvency each year, and this number is actually decreasing.  The number of construction companies is actually increasing by around 25,000 per annum, while the number of insolvencies is fairly stable at 1,700.
• There is little information available about sole trader construction industry businesses and business failure.  Anecdotally though, a high percentage of these businesses cease operating. The Australian Bureau of Statistics show of the total 629,000 sole practitioner businesses in Australia existing in all industries in June 2018, only 54% were still around in June 2022 – an annual decline of 18.5%.  Extrapolating these statistics to the construction industry around 49,000 sole trader construction business cease operating every year.

Construction Industry Failures – Element of Surprise?

Many are taken aback by these construction industry failures, caught by surprise and highly frustrated. However, these emotions of surprise and alarm should be directed towards the under-reporting in the media and general lack of public awareness of just how many small construction industry businesses fail. Especially the ‘often overlooked’ sole trader, partnerships and owner-operator construction businesses (subcontractors).

Mulling over the dangers of the above statistics, and living in Melbourne through the series of pandemic lockdowns, I took the opportunity to have my team call over 100 small construction businesses at the start of 2021. We did this to forewarn of the ‘headwinds’ that we foresaw and to suggest that construction businesses start preparing while they still had time to make changes to ensure their businesses survived the looming storm. 

Bar none, we were informed of just how great the construction industry was travelling. The government had incentives such as Homemaker or Home Builder to encourage and sustain the building industry.  Customers had savings as they had been restricted with holidays, travel, of eating out for a couple of years.  The orders books were full to overflowing.

Included within my team’s 100 calls was a former client of mine that, I’m pleased to say, had been a previous successful turnaround many years prior. Four months after my engagement had commenced, I had saved them millions, eradicated their immediate & critical issues and helped them regain control. The engagement was terminated – due to the fact that my client was satisfied I had achieved their objectives. When contact was made with them in January 2021 by my team, we were informed how great everything was. I have only just discovered that this mid-sized volume builder has, unfortunately, voluntarily appointed administrators this week.

This is the perfect example of the consequences of a term referred to as a ‘profitless boom’. So, let’s look now at some of the looming headwinds that were blowing.

Construction Industry Insolvency Looming Headwinds

• Structural industry issues

In Victoria residential homes are built with fixed price contracts.  There are no escalation provisions.  Volume builders also operate with thin margins c.f. milkbars v supermarkets.  Therefore, is only takes a small delay, some cost increase and the margin disappears or turns negative.  It is estimated that new home build costs have increased around 25% a year for each of the last two years.

• Regulatory issues

The construction industry is heavily regulated in areas such as safety and environment.  Non-compliance can lead to fines, site shutdowns and legal actions which are costly.  Also complying with regulations is costly, and the more regulations being imposed the greater the costs being incurred.

• Capital

Construction is a capital-intensive industry with large amounts of capital required for tools and equipment, vehicles and in the case of volume builders, capital for display homes.

• Working capital

Businesses that are growing and businesses where delays occur require greater working capital.  Lending from financial institutions was/is tightening and in the case of sole traders’ personal finances are becoming strained and savings are dissipating.  Equifax report that sole traders are 80% more likely, and director of construction businesses 30% more likely to have missed mortgage repayments than the average consumer.

• Labour shortage

Pre pandemic there was a skills shortage in the construction industry.  Post pandemic immigration has been subdue and especially with skilled workers while at the same time demand and industry requirements for skilled labour has further increased.  This is leading to project delays and increase staffing costs.  There is also a net loss of construction workers with workers retiring in greater numbers than new entrants joining. It is also affecting suppliers as well.

• Supply chain issues

The has been a dramatic shortage of material used in construction e.g., framing timber. There are also dramatic delays in actually receiving the material which leads to a spiralling increase in costs. 

• Economic conditions

Like all industries and all countries, economic conditions have worsened post pandemic.  Inflation is high, growth is low, wages growth is stagnant. Operating costs have increased, capital requirements and funding costs have increased, and now there is beginning to be a downturn in the construction activity.

• Environment challenges

While unable to be predicted the construction industry was impacted by floods, droughts, and fires.

Opportunities Missed in the Construction Industry

So, what could have been done two years ago, and what could be done now?

• There could be structural changes in the construction and building industry.  Queensland have specific solvency reporting requirements before builders can get insurance.  NSW government facilitated a market-led rating regime (iCIRT by Equifax) where construction businesses can opt to go through an independent and rigorous review process to obtain a star-rating outcome that substantiates and rates reliability and resilience. Using iCERT in the failure of ProBuild showed years prior to its eventual demise the rating declined from 2.5 bronze stars in 2019 to 1 bronze star in 2021 when it collapsed.
• Insurance process is ‘loose’ with delays in obtaining mandatory insurance leading to a period of exposure for customers.  The coverage is also not ‘fit-for-purpose’ with the changes in the industry leaving customers potentially under insured and without the ability to change that.
• Deposits and payments could be managed much the same way as done in the legal professions through trust accounts and restrictions and hurdles to access those funds.
• Training on running a business could become a core competency in every trade qualification.
• Industry bodies and government could put a lot more effort and attention helping sole trader construction businesses – after all 29 times more sole trader construction business cease each year than company construction businesses.

–

‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing’ – but are we learning from mistakes made in the construction industry?

Hindsight is a wise teacher and there are still industry wide actions that could be undertaken to reduce the prevalence and likelihood of failed construction businesses.

I actually feel frustrated that building and construction firms are failing at the alarmingly high rates, but more so that lessons are not being learned, and action to change things is either not happening, being resisted or happening too slowly.  I feel sorry for the unassuming customer victims, for the staff that lose their jobs, the suppliers that don’t get paid.

I feel frustrated at the finger pointing and lack of self-accountability of the players in the construction industry.  I feel helpless when help is arrogantly refused – like watching the proverbial slow car crash.  I feel frustrated that the cycle will repeat itself and more people with suffer needlessly.

Stephen Barnes BCom(Acc&Fin), PostGradFin, FCA, FGIA, FICDA, DipBus(Gov), RTP® | Byronvale Advisors

• This book is for all people in business, although it is particularly targeted at those businesses starting out and/or businesses that are floundering. The book does not assume that you have a business education, rather it draws on the one percenters from the world’s best business courses, authors and authorities and presents them in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way.
• Most of these business owners fall into one of two camps: they are either super enthusiastic but lack structure and certain skills; or have lost their way and are feeling completely over whelmed.
• Throughout these pages, I will take you on a journey, through planning, finance, marketing and managing your risk with the aim of teaching you how to run your business better. Some of the things you read, you may know already – so treat them as a refresher. Others you will wish you had learned earlier.

Author Stephen Barnes RTP®

“An easy-to-follow, comprehensive refresher on business ownership. Stephen takes you on a journey through planning, finance, marketing and managing risk in business.” – Nadia Kentera, Director, Kentera Event

“… a pragmatic and practical guide which we can all learn from… a great combination of what I knew but needed to do, which provided help in achieving those tasks.” – Paul Travers, Director, KPMG and Director, FTA Secretariat

“I like this book. It’s a simple, direct, easy read that challenges basic assumptions and reminds us why we all go into business. We can easily get lost or distracted along the way. This book is a great tool to bring us back on task.”
– Richard Benton, Business owner, Director, Board Chairman and conservationist