Shares in the firm have increased by nearly four per cent after it lifted underlying operating profit by 0.9 per cent to £128.6 million. Sales have risen by 5.8 per cent to £2.26 billion in the year to the end of March.

The profitable year saw Mitie, which employs more than 7,000 staff in Scotland, retain and extend deal to provide services to Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments and secure a major three-year contract worth £10m with Larchwood Care Homes to provide technical facilities management services.

Meanwhile, an extension of the group’s partnership with Lloyds Banking Group will deliver facilities management across the lender’s entire UK branch and office network for a further seven years.

Chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith said she expected opportunities in the outsourcing market to continue to grow after the group secured 85 per cent of budgeted revenue for the year ahead.

“Outsourcing is going to grow significantly in the UK over the next five years and it tends to grow two or three times what GDP growth rates are, particularly when you’ve got big cost pressure,” she said. “Overall, there’s a really positive outlook for us.”

The latest results revealed that pre-tax profit had edged up 0.7 per cent to £114.1m, slightly ahead of what the City had been expecting the FTSE 250 firm to report.

Mitie had warned in March that operating profit would be slightly shy of expectations because of market pressures in its homecare and social housing divisions.

McGregor-Smith said: “Mitie has made good progress this year.

“We have repositioned the business and lowered our risk profile.

“Our facilities management business accounts for 85 per cent of group revenue and is a UK market leader.

“We see considerable opportunities across our markets, to provide clients with higher quality, innovative services that save them money.

“We also see this as a positive environment in which to start to grow new businesses, and we plan to back entrepreneurs to do this through our £20m ‘Mitie Model’ entrepreneurial fund.”

She added: “We are focused on generating profits backed by cash, maintaining strong margins and grow the dividend. With a substantial order book and sales pipeline, we are well placed to deliver consistently strong growth.”