Reporting pre-tax profit up 20% to £27.1m, the contracting-to-construction-equipment group's chairman Mike Bottjer said the firm had secured more long-term orders through partnering arrangements.
The firm is working on this basis with a string of water companies. It also saw healthy construction activity in the Middle East, with £279m of orders by the end of 1998.
Tilbury's facilities services division, formed after the acquisition of M&E group How, has forward orders of £118m. The engineering services arm has £102m of orders.
Tilbury's equipment-hire division turned in a strong performance and achieved a 21.4% margin on turnover up 10% to £56m. It benefited from strong demand in Australia, the Middle East, Ireland and the UK, although its French arm was closed.
Bottjer said he expected the company's range of services to provide "significant" growth opportunities well into the 21st century.
