The firm reported a rise in both turnover and pre-tax profits for the year ended 31 December 2018, with group revenue up 32% to £862.7 million, while profit before tax increased by 12% to £79.9m.

Breedon said the improvement was underpinned by contributions from its recent acquisitions. The company paid £455m for Lagan Group last year and swapped some of its ready-mix plants for three Tarmac quarries.

Breedon said: “The acquisition of Lagan in April was transformative. It took us into an attractive new market with significant growth potential, also helping to offset a muted GB performance in the year under review.

“In addition, the Tarmac asset swap was important as it enabled us to streamline our concrete network by relinquishing 23 peripheral plants in exchange for 25 million tonnes of reserves in four quarries, together with an asphalt plant, thereby further strengthening our asset base and improving the quality of our earnings.”

The group revealed 19.4 million tonnes of aggregates were sold – a rise from the 16 million sold in 2017. 3.2 million cubic metres of ready-mixed concrete were sold (2017: 3.3 million cubic metres), as well as two million tonnes of cement.

Executive chairman Peter Tom CBE said: “We can be justifiably proud of our results. We outperformed the GB market in sales volumes of all our key products, grew our revenues and Underlying EBIT, and once again generated strong cash flow, enabling us to pay down a material proportion of our post-Lagan debt by the year-end.

“Our company is in excellent shape and well placed to benefit from the medium-term growth predicted for our markets. We have a strong asset base, a highly cash-generative business and a talented management team, all of which give us a significant competitive advantage whatever the market conditions.

“We are confident of making further progress in the current year.”