Work for the Royal Navy and a series of oil and gas contracts have steered Tyneside’s Wood Group to turnover of almost £150m.

The Gateshead firm , one of the remaining big employers on the Tyne with just over 2,000 employees , carried out work on the Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines and Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, as well as work on Shell Northern Systems Plants and other maintenance contracts in the onshore process and energy, and offshore oil and gas sectors.

The work by the firm, which has painted some of Britain’s best-known bridges and warships, served up a 10.2% lift in turnover of £149.1m.

However, net assets dropped from £40.8m to £38.9m following the payout of a “substantial” dividend – the second year in a row that shareholders at the firm benefited from a bumper £9m dividend. The directors have not recommended a dividend for the next accounts period.

Pre-tax profit also dropped by 37% from £13.9m in 2016 to £8.8m and the firm said the majority of this was as a result of increased corporate charges from its parent company.

The Riverside Route-based business operates across a raft of sectors, carrying out a range of industrial services from making and applying protective paints and fire proofing, to installing insulation and providing fire sentries.

Originally founded as Pyeroy in 1973, the company was acquired five years by Aberdeen’s Wood Group, which has interests right across the globe.

In a strategic report accompanying the accounts, directors said the company’s forward order book at the end of the year was £211m, with contracts worth almost £40m having been awarded to date in 2018.

The report added: “As a result of the diversity of the company’s customer base across a broad range of industry sectors, its reliance on any given sector or customer is mitigates. Customer spending in the company’s key targets of infrastructure, marine, utilities and process and energy is expected to continue at comparable levels or increased levels compared to 2017.

“It is the company’s intent to increase its presence in the on-shore process and energy and offshore energy markets whilst retaining a strong presence in the infrastructure and marine sectors.”