Directors reported revenue down by a quarter to £45m last year. This saw the 217-employee firm suffer an £1.8m loss compared to a £4.2m pre-tax profit for the previous year.

In a statement with the results, the firm said: “Caution in key customer decision making with regard to project start-up impacted by both political and Brexit uncertainty is the principal factor involved.”

It said that the outlook for 2019, acknowledging the continued Brexit uncertainty, had improved with key projects in its core schools market “in contract”

For greater long term growth McAvoy is also investing more in housing and health markets.

The firm recently completed one of the UK’s first purpose-designed out-patient care centres, in the shape of a new three-storey wing for Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital.

It is also is aiming to make a mark in housing with a new seven-day foundations-to-finish modular system for all tenures.

Eugene Lynch, Chief Executive, The McAvoy Group said: “We invested significantly in 2018 in research and development for our entry into the offsite housing market and to plan, prototype and deliver our first project in this new sector.

“We made provision for this investment in 2018 and have continued to develop our operational and engineering capabilities this year to reflect the scale of the opportunity for the business in the residential sector.

“We are committed to expanding into offsite housing and to becoming a major provider of new homes.

“We also have ambitious plans to grow our existing business across the education, healthcare, commercial and infrastructure sectors where we continue to push the boundaries of offsite and digital construction technology.

“We experienced a slowdown in progressing contracts in 2017, perhaps due to the election that year. This had a significant impact on the flow of projects in 2018 and resulted in a decrease in turnover last year.

“We took the decision to retain all our core skills and continued to invest for future growth regardless of the reduction in turnover.

“We are pleased to report that our growth in 2019 has been significant, increasing to around £70m. We anticipate further growth in 2020, despite the uncertainty around Brexit and its potential impact on the wider economy.”