The brighter outlook comes after a difficult start to the year after the grandson of the founder and chief executive David Hodgkiss died in March after contracting coronavirus.

Former chief of projects Hugo Camacho was appointed chief operations officer immediately to ensure business continuity.

The Bury-based firm said it was looking at an extremely strong order book and was encouraged by quality projects still coming to market despite the pandemic.

Sue Hodgkiss, chairman of the group,  said that in addition to the strong balance sheet and healthy order book, there was substantial headroom against banking and insurance guarantees.

Across both UK and international operations, William Hare Group reported a 50% jump in pre-tax profit last year to £5.2m on revenue slightly down at £203m.

The mainstream William Hare constructional steelwork business contributed £142m (2018: £167m) of sales with pre-tax profit up 16% to £3.6m.

Operating margins remained under pressure but improved to 3.9% from 3.2%.

The group ended the year with a cash position of £24m.

The average number of staff in the UK edged up 5% to 756, with staff employed in the rest of the world remaining stable at just over 1,000.