Bosses at Oxford building firm Beard are cautiously optimistic after unveiling a healthy set of financial figures.

The business, based on Cumnor Hill, saw its pre-tax profits treble to 1.05m, while turnover rose 30 per cent to £55.8m for the year to the end of 2008.

Mark Beard, managing director of the family firm, said the first four months of this year had also been “very good” but added that the potential effects of the recession would not be felt yet.

He added: “The challenge for our industry will be in 2010-11 because major organisations take a long time to stop their investment plans.

“We are also worried about the level of Government borrowing. There has been a lot of investment in areas such as education and health but in 18 months time it will have to clamp down on that.”

Beard, which employs a stable workforce of about 85 people in Oxford with a similar number in Swindon, recently won a contract to build a £3m convent in Buckinghamshire after completing the Elmthorpe Convent in Oxford Road, Cowley.

It also carried out a £2.3m refurbishment of a warehouse and office at Axis Point, Osney Mead for Oxford University and refurbished Beaver House in Oxford to create new offices for the university’s Business Services and Projects group.

Beard has recently won framework agreements with Oxfordshire County Council and Aspire, a service contract with the Ministry of Defence, worth £8m a year.

The firm is not completing £900,000 of work at the entrance to Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford to provide a new reception area, with information point and shop, lift and stairs.

Other recent projects have included work at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, The Radcliffe Camera and the Ashmolean Museum.