The Andrew Sykes Group, the Wolverhampton-based air conditioning and heating hire firm largely owned by Jacques Gaston Murray, is seeing big increases in revenue. And contracts for the Olympic and Paralympic Games have helped.

The company continues to put in solid performances, and is worth well over £300 million.

Turnover is up 8.4 per cent at £58.4 million, operating profit is up at £14.3 million, although profit after tax is down slightly. The previous year’s figures were boosted by property disposals.

Importantly the group continues to generate strong cash flows. Net cash inflow from operating activities was £12.8 million, an improvement of £1.2 million.

Cost control, cash and working capital management continue to be priorities for the group, and shortly before Christmas the firm paid out an interim dividend worth nearly £4 million.

Jacques Murray puts the company’s relative success down to its policy of reducing its reliance on its traditional core products and services, together with an increase in non-seasonal business and investment in new technically advanced and environmentally friendly produce.

The company has expanded its overseas operations in the face of difficult trading conditions and unhelpful weather with the opening of its fourth Dutch depot in the north-east of Holland to provide a platform for future expansion.

The fixed installation business was boosted by the supply of equipment for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

At 94, Jacques Gaston Murray shows little sign of slowing down. His other main business is West Yorkshire-based London Security, one of Europe’s leading fire protection businesses, of which he owns 98 per cent.

The family also has six hotels worth £310 million including the 431 bedroom Grand Beach Hotel in Miami Beach.

He has been a British national since just after the Second World War. He was born in Paris and studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was called up in 1940 and when France surrendered to Germany he made his way to England where he joined the Royal Air Force, flying 38 missions as a navigator.

He was awarded the French Legion of Honour.

After the war – during which his father died in Auschwitz – he returned to France, but came back to England to embark on a distinguished business career.

His involvement with fire extinguishers began in 1961 when he invested in a business which became General-Incendie SA, one of France’s largest fire extinguisher companies.

The Andrews Sykes Group was formed in 1857 and has more than 30,000 customers.

As well as these businesses, the Murray family has a property portfolio and other assets.