Timber frame house builder Stewart Milne is back in the black after turning around its fortunes.

The company, which employs 115 at its Witney plant, recorded a £0.1m pre-tax profit for the year 2009/10, compared to a £27m loss the previous year.

Chairman and chief executive, Stewart Milne said: “We are pleased with our performance over the last year and our return to profit. “Despite the ongoing challenging market conditions, we have delivered a satisfactory trading performance by our ongoing focus on our customers and their requirements.

“We are well placed to move ahead and grow our business.”

And the message from group managing director Glenn Allison to Oxfordshire workers was: “We are on target for turnover and profits to be greater for the timber frame operation in Witney this year.

“We hope timber frame will account for a larger share of the house-building cake in the future — even though the total size of the cake is now much smaller than before the recession.”

He added: “The timber frame option is attractive for house builders in the present climate because of the speed of building which leads to good cash management and because it meets the Government’s recommendations for sustainable building.”

The Witney plant’s headcount has only decreased by one over the last year, although nationally employment at the Scottish-based firm is down about five per cent at 950.

In 2007/8 the company turned in a £25m pre tax profit on £118m turnover. In 2009/10 turnover was just £54m, and the year before was £100m.

Mr Allison said he did not expect overall market conditions to improve greatly in the next 18 months.

But he put in a plea for the Government to recognise the importance to the economy of the house building industry and urged it to do all it could to make mortgages more easily available.

He said: “I don’t how a young first time buyer can find 20 per cent of the price of a home when starting out. But the underlying demand is there and we aim to achieve our long term objectives for growth.

“In 2007 there was a projected demand for 50,000 new homes across the UK. That can only have gone up since then.”

He added the company was operating on less cash, having reduced its bank facility, but it had no credit problems.