Engineers secure £44m in contracts

The Barnsley-based firm secured agreements to carry out work with Network Rail, the Environment Agency and Scottish Power.

Amco also recently secured a 7.4m contract with the Electricity Alliance East to refurbish the cable cooling system on two circuits running between the National Grid substations at St John's Wood and West Ham in North London.

Amco will replace all of the cooling equipment along the route and refurbish eight pumping stations.

David Jackson, Amco's chief executive, said: "While increased competition for all engineering contracts promises to make 2010 yet another challenging year, Amco secured more than 44m of new orders in the last quarter of 2009 and is starting 2010 with a total order book in excess of 180m."

Amco was acquired in a management buyout led by David Jackson and Ian Swire in April 2008, with support from Leeds-based investor Endless.

Darren Forshaw, a partner at Endless, said: "It is a huge testament to the strength of the business that it has clear expectations of continuing to grow its sales and profitability in 2010 and beyond."