Motherwell Bridge, as traditional a Scottish engineering name as could be imagined, has come storming through the recession with profits up five-fold and a brimming order book.
The success is partly due to the company’s distinctly untraditional policy of complying with Islamic law, forbidding it to use debt to finance its growth, a constraint that is unimaginable to most businesses.
Next week Motherwell Bridge is expected to announce profits of about £5 million for 2012, up from £1 million two years ago. It will also disclose an order book that has swelled by 80 per cent from this time last year, including a $22.5 million (£14.7 million) contract to renovate and build 22 oil storage tanks near Monrovia, Liberia.
These prospects are a far cry