Mouchel, the privately-owned consultant engineer, has turned in record results, raising pre-tax profit 23% in the year to 31 July.
Profit rose from £3.5m last year to £4.3m, and turnover increased 15% to £71.5m. Chief executive Jim Harding said the order book, at more than £200m, was stronger than it had ever been.

He said the group, which aimed to become a leading provider of managed services for infrastructure assets, was focusing on longer-term contracts. It was particularly interested in winning government transport deals.

Harding said: "Much of our future growth in turnover will be independent of the economic cycle, as it will be underpinned by long-term contracts."

Our growth will be underpinned by long-term contracts

Chief executive Jim Harding

The group has won a Highways Agency contract to manage maintenance and incident response for the M25 for the next five-to-seven years. It also has long-term partnering arrangements with nine local authorities.