POWER firm Aggreko has won a £32 million contract for the next Winter Olympics, it has been announced.

The Glasgow-based company, which specialises in temporary power, heating and cooling, will provide electricity generators to 18 competition venues when the contest begins in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The 2018 games mark the first time the contest has been held in any Asian country but Japan and Aggreko, which operates in more than 30 nations worldwide, will also be an event sponsor.

The contract also covers power for the international broadcast centre, with Aggreko tasked with “ensuring an uninterrupted television broadcast to millions of viewers throughout the world”.

Chief executive Chris Weston said: “I am delighted that Aggreko has been appointed the official power provider for the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018. We look forward to helping the organising committee deliver another successful games.”

In 2010 the company, which has around 450 staff in Scotland, invested £20 million in building a state of the art manufacturing plant in Dumbarton’s Lomondgate industrial estate to house its design, development and manufacturing teams.

Last August the firm announced profits had fallen by almost one third during the first half of the year in “difficult” trading conditions, predicting profits would show a slight dip for the full year.

Pre-tax profits before one-off items were down £102m to £71m for the six months to the end of June, with revenues down 12 per cent at £685m.

In 2015 it announced an £80m cost cutting programme, which included the loss of 700 jobs from its global workforce.

The latest Olympics win comes after the company pulled out of bidding for a contract for the Rio de Janeiro games last summer, attributing the decision to the scale of the summer tournament and the preparation needed.

However, it did supply power for the 2012 London Olympics, including the opening and closing ceremonies, in a £55m deal.

The games will see mountain events staged at Pyeongchang, 112 miles east of capital city Seoul, while curling, ice hockey and skating will be staged at the coastal city of Gangneung.