Construction
2018: No.32= - £160m
2017: No.28 - £160m

Rupert Mucklow’s industrial property group has seen profits boosted by a revaluation of its investment properties which made a £13 million contribution in the year to June 2017.

The group's pre-tax profits improved from £25.2 million to £29.6 million while the value of the Mucklow property portfolio rose from £384.2 million to £386.9 million.

Meanwhile the group has been shifting its focus. As the regional property investment market became more subdued the company chose to focus on creating its own industrial investments, with pre-let developments where there is good occupier demand.

As chairman of Cradley Heath-based A&J Mucklow Group – one of the region’s leading industrial property companies - Rupert Mucklow has been reducing his commitment to the business to concentrate on family matters. A board shake-up has seen new non-executive directors join the company. The family has reduced its holding to just below 20 per cent.

A & J Mucklow is structured as a real estate investment trust and is the largest quoted investment property company in the Midlands.

Rupert Mucklow, aged 54, has been executive chairman of A&J Mucklow since 2004 when his father, Albert, stepped down. He owns nearly a third of the business.

Founded in 1933, the firm began life as a house builder but in the 1960s – having gone public in 1962 - moved away from homes and concentrated on investing in and developing industrial, commercial and retail property.

Over the intervening years Mucklow has ridden out the ups and downs of the property market. A long term strategy of maintaining a portfolio of properties with potential for long term rental and capital growth is balanced against a short term strategy which is more opportunistic, acquiring when values are low and disposing when investment values are more robust.

The company is still very much a family business with the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the company’s founders holding shares.