Total revenue for the year to March 31 2012 was up 22% to £695.3m while pre-tax profit rose 17% to £28.4m as margins held steady at 4.3%.

Bidding teams enjoyed a busy year at the firm as the order book grew to £1.5bn with potential contract extensions of £1.1bn across the support services and highways sectors.

May Gurney made most of its money from public sector services which accounted for 60% of total revenue during the year.

The company now delivers highways maintenance services for 20 local authorities representing a 12% share of the total market.

The Regulated Sector Services division enjoyed a healthy year driven by work in the water industry despite a disappointing performance on a number of smaller contracts in Scotland which have been discontinued.

Chief executive Philip Fellowes-Prynne said: “Our strategy of targeting resilient, maintenance-focused revenue streams has proved successful against the background of a challenging economic environment.

“Whilst we continue to bid intelligently, our approach has always been to pursue value over volume, especially as our markets become increasingly competitive.

“Therefore, we remain selective and focus on profitable work where added value, service innovation, collaborative working and customer service are the primary drivers.

“The impact of the next Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) is expected to drive further outsourcing of services which are currently in-house, to address the imperative to reduce costs whilst maintaining front-line essential services to local communities.

“We are confident given the start to the new financial year that our deep long-term client and community relationships, diverse portfolio of integrated essential services, strong order book and substantial bidding pipeline will ensure continued growth and success.”