Turner & Co, one of Scotland's family company giants, saw profits recover last year after a near-50% crash in 2010, and is now sitting on £46 million of cash.
The Glasgow-based group, whose activities span facilities management, aviation services, and the hire of diesel equipment, vehicles and scaffolding, piled on £40m of turnover to hit £269m in the year to March 2011.
That helped operating profit lift from £8.2m to £11.5m, while pre-tax profit jumped from £8.7m to £12.6m having fallen steeply from £17.1m in 2009.
The dividend to family shareholders, led by chairman Gordon Turner, resumed at £1.6m after falling to nil in 2010 from £2m the previous year.
Turner & Co, based in Govan but with a strong presence in Aberdeen, has cut average headcount from 2460 in 2009 to 2191 last year.
It is debt-free and its cash resources grew from £32m to £46m, helping shareholder funds rise from £114m to £123m.
Turner's diesel engineering and facilities management businesses earned the lion's share of profits at £10.2m on a 17% increase in sales to £235m, or 88% of turnover, including most of the group's £37m of overseas business.
The directors cite "contract changes". They go on to say that the aviation division operates in a very competitive market with margins under constant pressure. Turnover increased to £7.8m and profit was steady at £900,000.
The construction access division lifted turnover by 30% to £13m and made a profit of £200,000.
The hire drive business saw a 14% sales rise to £12.3m, and made a £1.5m profit.
The directors say the group will "continue to maintain and increase the strength of its operating divisions and invest in the profitable areas of the business" whilst exploiting new opportunities as they arise.
The highest-paid director, whose total remuneration dropped from £491,000 to £353,000 last year, was paid £357,000, it was revealed.
At the start of the current financial year, Turner signed a joint venture deal with US giant Fluor Corporation to provide infrastructure and logistics support services for the UK's armed forces operations in Afghanistan.
Turner has 25 years of experience supporting the Ministry of Defence abroad and at home, where it manages much of the MoD's property in Scotland.
Fluor, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies, has extensive experience supporting the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it operates 65 bases with more than 18,000 personnel.
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