When Hercules raised £1.7m from shareholders last month, it said the money would be used to fund organic growth. Already it seems organic growth will not be enough and acquisitions are deemed necessary.

“With regards to potential acquisitions, we are progressing discussions with potential targets and look forward to updating the market at the appropriate time,” said chairman Henry Pitman.

“Our pipeline for 2023 looks robust across all three of our business units and, as outlined in our full year results, trading in the current financial year has begun positively. As well as increased momentum on the HS2 rail project from London to Birmingham, we expect further growth to come from new contracts for our labour supply, suction excavator and civil projects divisions, driven by the buoyant conditions in the infrastructure market at present.”

He added: “The board of Hercules remains confident about the outlook for the company. We have to navigate through the current challenging economic climate similar to other UK businesses, but we are experiencing unprecedented demand for our services due to the multi-billion-pound infrastructure commitments made by the UK government and private enterprises.”

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