Turnover at the company, whose head office is in Dunkeld Road, rose 8.5 per cent to £34.2 million. However, profit from the sale of land and buildings fell from £5.4m to £41,500.

This sent the pre-tax profit tumbling from £5.9m to £1.17m. The group profit after tax fell by a similar margin from £4.96m to £982,710.

Managing director Scott Brown said the group had another challenging period in the civil engineering and remediation sector, with turnover lower than the goal.

Control of costs in contracting continued to be of key importance, and strong management and an excellent reporting and control environment remained essential.

The group made continued progress in promoting sites for property development with projects in Fife, East Lothian and Falkirk, and the housing market was recovering.

Energy developments have made progress, and the group awaited a decision from the Scottish Government about the North Calliachar planning appeal.

In property Breckenridge Estates continued to trade profitably, with two further properties added to the portfolio.

He told The Courier: “The directors are satisfied with the results for the period and are focused on ensuring the civil engineering division maintains profitability.

“The present order book is markedly higher than last year which gives us confidence going forward through to 2015.”

Working capital was satisfactory and the group continued to have modest debt.

Mr Brown added: “We expect our marketplace to continue to be challenging but, with a higher volume of work, we expect margins to improve and good opportunities to arise.”

Formed in 1964 as a plant-hire company, I&H Brown moved into civil engineering and now has environmental improvement work at the heart of the business.

From extensive involvement in colliery reclamation in the 1980s, the group has become Scotland’s leading contractor in the reclamation of brownfield sites and the remediation of contaminated land.

Projects in the latter category include gasworks sites in Dundee and also Glasgow.

I&H Brown also has an office in Warrington.