Mr Martin has led the group for a decade and will depart later this year.

Clugston Group chairman John Clugston said: “Stephen has been a most effective and loyal CEO and while we are sorry to see him leave, we are delighted he will be taking up such a prestigious appointment. Once Stephen’s successor has been selected a further announcement will be made.”

Clugston recorded a £2.2m pre-tax profit on a turnover of £143.4m in its results for 2015/16 released this month.

That compared with turnover of £160m and pre-tax profit of £5.1m the year before.

In construction, the group made a £2m profit (2014/15: £3m) on turnover of £126.6m in a market it said “remains very competitive”.

Mr Martin said: “While we continue to face challenging conditions, Clugston Group has achieved another strong set of results, with solid profitability, substantial cash balances of £19.7m and no bank borrowings.

“We appreciate that the economic outlook is now more uncertain following the Brexit decision; however, we already have a substantial forward order book in place for the next two years and remain confident that we can continue to deliver acceptable levels of profitability.

“Furthermore, Clugston continues to make good progress in securing increased volumes of work in the water and care home sectors and I am pleased to announce that we will shortly commence work on our 12th energy-from-waste facility.”