Murphy Group, perhaps the best-known Irish construction firm in the UK, saw its turnover surpass £1bn last year, booking revenues of £1.11bn (€1.29bn), despite the impact of the pandemic.

The 70-year-old London-based business, which recently filed its latest accounts, reported a modest profit of £12.9m, up from £1.1m in 2019, on revenues of £1.11bn, up from £875m the previous year.

Accounts seen by the Sunday Independent also reveal that a portfolio of investment properties partly located in north London built up by the Murphy family has increased in value from £231m in 2019 to £252.8m last year.

Its holding company paid a £3m dividend last year, the same as in 2019. With six directors, it has an Isle of Man parent company that is in turn controlled by a Murphy family trust.

Employing over 3,500 staff, Murphy Group has seen its revenues particularly boosted by government infrastructure spending in the UK on projects such as pipelines, bridges, railways, roads, water and power, as well as buildings.

Here, the firm’s Kildare-based Irish business employs 450 people who have worked on harbour, road, and student accommodation projects. It also operates and maintains 29 facilities for Irish Water, and has worked on Intel’s fab 10, and The Curragh racecourse.

The firm said it started this year with a £1.6bn order book, and would plant 5,000 trees a year and spend £75m over the next five years on more environmentally-friendly construction vehicles and equipment, making its vehicles green in that sense, as well as in the colour.

In March, working with Irish-founded joint venture partner Carey Group, Murphy Group began working on a transformation of London’s Oxford Street, installing two new piazzas, as well as additional trees, benches, play areas, artworks, paving and lighting.

For an 18-month period ending September last year, Carey Group recently booked revenues of £748.9m and profits of £16.6m after a company restructuring due to the impact of Brexit and the pandemic.

The firm, which was founded in 1969, also works in Ireland and Scotland, and employs 1,210 people, headed up by second-generation CEO Jason Carey.