Pre-tax profit at retail property services group Styles & Wood more than doubled to £2.3m in the six months ending 30 June.

Chief executive Neil Davies said that despite a slowing retail market and waning consumer confidence it had achieved strong growth because of changing retail formats that were creating business, and the trend in the industry to outsource services.

“Those two areas coming together are working well for us,” said Davies.

Styles & Wood’s clients include Tesco, Barclays, Boots and Homebase. Davies said it had benefited from the increasing trend among its supermarket clients to diversify into non-food formats.

Turnover at the company rose 21% to £71.7m. Davies said that although the company had no specific plans for a flotation, this had not been ruled out.

The company’s order book at the half-year was £160m.