Gloucester-based Mears Group has revealed a return to profit in 2021, after a strong increase in revenue.

For the 12 months to 31 December 2021, the housing services provider reported a turnover of £878m up from £805m the year before.

Mears achieved a pre-tax profit of 16.3m, compared to a £15.2m loss made in 2020.

The group said the "most obvious theme for 2021" was the gradual and progressive return to normal working across most of Mears' activities.

While repair and maintenance activities were restricted and a number of contracts continued at the start of 2021, by the half year Mears said it had returned to almost normal operations and contractual conditions.

Chairman Kieran Murphy said: "The resilience of our markets and our operations was underlined by the fact that the appearance late in the year of the Omicron Covid variant, while creating some operational challenges, had very little impact on activity levels, service quality or financial performance.

"We entered 2022 with a strong trading and financial position, a good pipeline of work and continued high levels of customer service."

David Miles, Mears Group chief executive officer, added: "These results are testament to the strength of the Group's high-quality operations, trusted customer relationships and collaborative approach.

"The positive trading performance across revenues, profits and cash was driven by good pipeline conversion, successful cost management and long-term investment in our people and our systems. The year has started well and Mears is well-positioned to manage the sector-wide inflationary cost pressures."

Mears' headquarters is situated at Gloucester Business Park in Brockworth and the group currently employs around 5,500 people.