The firm, which floated on the stock market last February, said that revenue grew sharply as work ramped up on the northern sections of HS2 Phase 1.

Pre-tax profit following investment in plant and one-off flotation costs, was down at £161,000 from £515,000 previously.

Following investment using some of the £4m proceeds from the listing, Hercules now owns a fleet of 20 suction excavators with a further 10 due for delivery before the end of March.

Brusk Korkmaz, Hercules’ CEO, said: “Hercules has enjoyed positive year-on-year growth in 2022 which has seen us successfully deliver on our strategy and achieve momentum across all areas of our business.

“The UK infrastructure sector continues to forge ahead, with the UK government recently making strong commitments to deliver significant investment in our rail infrastructure, while recent banking reforms announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in December are being hailed as potentially unlocking billions of pounds of funding for UK infrastructure.

“As these results show, Hercules is ideally placed to benefit from the buoyant market conditions and we have invested in our business during the period to prepare for continued growth in the months and years ahead.

He added: “We have been implementing a successful strategy to tackle wage inflation and post year-end trading has been very encouraging, underpinning our confidence for the current year.”