The Northampton-based firm said there was a golden opportunity to fill the gap left in the market after several big names collapsed at the height of the M&E market crisis.

Earlier this year the top 10 M&E contractor took on several Emcor contracts in the Midlands after its rival announced it was winding down its UK business because the market had become too tough.

Mike Stanton, chairman of Briggs and Forrester, said he plans to grow the firm into a national M&E contractor with a turnover of around £250m over the next few years.

According to the last set of accounts Briggs and Forrester’s five businesses turned over around £130m last year. This is set to rise to £150m this year on the back of several major contracts like the ShangriLa hotel fit-out in the Shard.

The firm is now on the hunt for larger offices in London after building owners Derwent Property decided to redevelop the specialist’s City Road office.

“Already expansion has seen us open offices in Warrington, Birmingham and Newcastle, making us a truly national company, with our head office in Northampton and then further offices in Cambridge, Mansfield and Livingstone, near Edinburgh,” said Stanton.

“We’re very proud of our strength in the market “Particularly important is our in-house design capability, that sets us apart from many of our competitors and which enables us to develop innovative solutions within projects and deliver value engineering to our clients.”

Recently the firm has taken on around 100 extra staff bringing the directly employed headcount to around 600. Its workforce rises to 1,500 including sub-contractors, said Stanton.

It opened the Birmingham regional office this summer after Briggs and Forrester snared two big jobs earmarked for Emcor in the Midlands.

The first worth more than £10m was for M&E works for Interserve at the Jaguar Land Rover Body In White project in Castle Bromwich.

Main contractor Galliford Try has also signed up Briggs and Forester for the M&E package at its £89m super casino NEC Resort World for client Genting.

More recently it also bagged the £6m M&E package for Vinci Construction on the new £25m VW HQ in Milton Keynes.