Fletcher Building suffered an annus horribilis in 2017, and 2018 is looking like it will be testing for the company as well.

New Zealand's largest construction company, Fletcher Building, has posted a full year loss of $190 million and won't pay shareholders a dividend.

This compares to a profit of $94m in the 2017 financial year.

Fletcher Building chief executive Ross Taylor said there had been volume and revenue growth across its New Zealand and Australian businesses.

"But these gains have been more than offset by increased costs and our need to invest ahead of plan to meet higher than anticipated market demand," Taylor said.

Losses in its Building and Interiors division "have been maintained" at the $660m announced to the market in February 2018, the company said.

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Revenue for the year was $9.471 billion, while cash flow from operations was up $153m on the prior year, at $396m.

In New Zealand the Residential and Development division performed strongly, growing revenue and earnings, the company said, accounting for 24 per cent of revenue.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Fletcher CEO Ross Taylor and former Fletcher chairman Sir Ralph Norris.

Overall residential and development pulled in about $575m for the year.

"In New Zealand the Residential and Development division performed strongly, growing revenue and earnings and significantly increasing the volume of units sold from 499 in 2017 to 714 in 2018 (financial years)," the company said.

The company said Australian gross revenue increased, with all businesses achieving positive sales growth and performance improvements but operating profits decreased, as the majority of businesses were impacted by increased input costs, particularly in energy and resins.

Supplied SkyCity's new hotel and international convention centre has become a milestone around Fletcher's neck.

"With a new strategy in place we have started the new financial year with clear priorities and an operating model that will support us to deliver against them."

The company would focus on growing its core businesses, continuing to stabilise its construction division, and completing the divestment of non-core businesses Formica and Roof Tile Group.

"In both New Zealand and Australia we expect activity in the residential sectors to decline slightly, while activity in the non-residential, commercial and infrastructure sectors is likely to increase."

In February this year the company shocked markets when it announced $660m in losses from its Building and Interiors division, leading to chairman Sir Ralph Norris standing down.

Norris said the board had to be accountable for the troubled building group's massive construction losses. He had planned to stay in the job until next year.

The company's high profile construction unit, responsible for delivering many large scale projects in New Zealand including the international convention centre in Auckland and the Justice Precinct in Christchurch also caused financial woes, losing $292m in 2017 due to "underperformance in the management of two key contracts, one in Christchurch and one in Auckland".

At the time the company announced it would cease to bid on projects, and concentrate on finishing off those not completed.

At the time Norris blamed the loss in its construction division in 2017 to poor project management and governance, design changes and a lack of resources, specifically workers.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Fletcher chief executive Ross Taylor says its focus this year will be growing its core businesses.

"A boom in any business is almost as bad as a bust, because you end up with a situation where resources get short, the ability to price becomes compromised by the fact that the demand becomes such that sub-contractors and trades, etc, start to become more expensive because of the scarcity situation," he said at the time.

"And you also find you run into blocks and hurdles, which mean time goes against you and in any business, time costs money. "

Fletcher has bout 20,000 employees working across 40 countries, and has about 50 businesses including Fletcher Construction Company, Formica, PlaceMakers, Winstone Aggregates, Rocla Quarry Products, Gerard Roofing, and Pink Batts.

In total the company has 38,100 shareholders including the Accident Compensation Corporation, with about 17,000 shareholders holding up to 1000 shares.

"In line with the company's dividend policy to pay dividends in the range of 50 to 75 per cent of net earnings before significant items, no final dividend was declared," it said.

Subject to satisfactory trading performance dividends will resume in the 2019 full year.

Fletcher has a market capitalisation of about $9 billion and its shares were trading at $6.66 on Wednesday, down 3.5 per cent.