Keller said the slowdown in housing and commercial work forced it to swing the axe for a second time as it battled to get costs under control and turnover slid 14% to £49.6m.

But Keller said the worst was over and orders for Crossrail were leading a modest recovery.

During the year, the business was involved in a major piling contract at London’s Tottenham Court Road tube station.

The business has also commenced its early involvement with the use of specialist geotechnical and monitoring services for sections of the tunnelling works for the Crossrail project, which will employ the Getec monitoring systems developed by Keller in Germany and recently introduced into the UK.

This, together with substantial work as part of the upgrade of London’s Victoria Railway Station, which will also involve support from the German business, is due to start in the second half of 2011.

Overall, the group, which operates in the US, Australia and Middle East, saw pre-tax profits fall be nearly halve to £40m, excluding a £22m goodwill right off related to investments in Suncoast in the US and Keller-Terra in Spain.

Revenues were largely flat at £1,069m.

Justin Atkinson, Keller Chief Executive said: “The Group’s 2010 results reflect the sharpest decline in global construction in decades, which persisted throughout most of last year.

“Trading conditions in our mature markets remained very tough, although good overall contract performance, firm cost control and an increased contribution from our developing markets all helped to lessen the impact.”

Keller’s move down under several years ago is starting to pay off as the US and UK struggle. Now more than a third of revenue comes from Australia and developing markets against a shade over 10% five years ago.