Latest results for the year to October 31 2023 show turnover up to £689m from £527.8m but the firm slipped backed into the red generating a pre-tax loss of £1.2m from £3.2m profit last time.

It was a return to the red after the previous two years saw pre-tax losses of £4.3m and £9.4m.

Brendan Kerr, Group Executive Chairman said: “Keltbray’s business model has certainly been put to the test over the last four years, and I am pleased to report that it has served us well, making us an even stronger, more dynamic business today.

“I would like to thank everyone at Keltbray for their dedication and hard work. Their high levels of engagement have once again been instrumental to the business in producing a good set of results against a challenging backdrop.”

Keltbray maintained its group cash headroom position of £38.9m and the order book grew 120% to £1.1bn at the year end.

It said: “The year-end order book is significantly ahead of the prior year-end, largely due to the return on investments made in our business development and technical disciplines over the past four years.

“The Group continues to de-risk the order book across its portfolio by focusing on robust selection governance, targeting projects with acceptable terms, conditions and financial margins, which benefit from our integrated, self-delivery approach.”

Darren James, Group Chief Executive said: “I am pleased with the Group’s performance, particularly in key infrastructure markets such as energy transition and decarbonised transport, where secured work now exceeds £1 billion.

“Our high-quality order book provides visibility and security of future workloads, keeping our projects safely on track and enabling us to deliver a record set of results.

“Our two division, one business structure, addresses a broad range of large and expanding UK end markets, all of which are adapting to key structural drivers such as social and political change, carbon neutrality, energy transition and supply chain challenges to name but a few. This plays to Keltbray’s strength and will bring further opportunities for the Group.”