The company said it had grown its order book in an ‘uncertain economic and political climate’

T Clarke has posted an 8% increase in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2017 on the back of a 17% rise in turnover.

The building services firm, which has been rocked by a near-£3m fraud, reported turnover for the six months to 30 June 2017 of £142.8m, up 17%, and pre-tax profits for the period of £2.5m, a rise of 8%.

The company said it had grown its order book – up 22.5% to £392m – in an “uncertain economic and political climate…with good quality work and improving margins across most of our regions”.

Operations in London and the south east continued to dominate the firm’s business, accounting for £81m of revenues, up 30%, and £3.5m of operating profits, up 150%.

The firm’s central and south west activity suffered from a number of delayed project starts, it said, while the north and Scotland had secured a number of new schemes.

Net cash had nearly doubled to £2.4m, while shareholders would receive an interim dividend of 0.6p, up 20%.

The group, which has picked up new contracts at the John Lewis department store at the Westfield London shopping complex and work at a commercial building at Manchester Airport, said it remained “cautiously optimistic” about its future prospects.

Yesterday T Clarke announced it had acquired Eton Associates, a privately-owned, London-based building services firm with annual revenues of £9.5m, for a potential £2.6m, subject to certain financial targets being met.