This morning the engineering consultancy reported that orders had jumped 18% to £123m, giving it confidence to launch a major expansion drive.

In the first six months of the year WYG returned to the black delivering a pre-tax profit of £2.1m compred with a £400,000 loss the year before. Revenue remained flat at £63m.

Paul Hamer, chief executive officer of WYG, said: “Building on the strong first half performance in the UK, we are seeing an increasing flow of work from major public and private sector clients, underpinned by continuing economic growth and infrastructure spending which are the main drivers of our core front-end planning and consultancy business.

“In addition, having recently secured a more flexible £25m bank facility, we are actively reviewing a number of acquisition opportunities and investing in growth in support of our aspiration of building towards a profit before tax of £15m by 2018.”

The firms acquired North Associates in October further consolidating its leading position in planning consultancy.

WYG also announced that Sean Cummins had decided, for personal reasons, to step down as group finance director. The company has started an external search for a successor and will make an announcement in due course.