Needham Market-based civil engineering firm Breheny has completed a significant investment in new plant and machinery, and upgraded IT infrastructure, after securing a £4million funding package from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking to help accelerate its growth strategy.

Breheny, which was established in 1963 and is a member of the EADT/EDP Top100 listing of the 100 largest businesses in Suffolk and Norfolk, specialises in the construction and maintenance of highways and bridges, development groundworks and projects in the marine and energy industries.

In the past three months the company has secured £30m of new business, including a £14m contract to upgrade sections of the A24 road from London to the Sussex coast.

In view of its growing workload, Breheny recognised it needed to invest in state-of-the-art machinery including excavators and dumpers and to improve its IT operations.

John Breheny, chairman, said: “Confidence in the engineering industry has risen sharply in the past 12 months, and the business has capitalised on the opportunities this upturn has presented with a number of significant new contract wins in 2014.

“We switched to Lloyds Bank because we needed a facility that could provide substantial support for our growing order book and would be suitable to support our expansion aspirations, and the bank has shown a thorough understanding of the business and proactively provided relevant solutions for our plans.”

Breheny will also use the funding to invest in its staff training and apprenticeship programmes, to help support its long-term strategy to expand into new markets including the rail industry. The business, which has 350 employees, has taken on two new engineering apprentices this year and will have a number of new job opportunities available over the next 12 months.

Richard Todd, relationship director at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “There are already tangible signs that the business is benefiting from the upturn in the economy, as its robust management team has a clear long-term growth strategy. This funding headroom will give the business the ability to build further on its latest contract wins, whilst also providing it with the opportunity to invest in young people to help address the skills gap emerging in the sector.”