Profits soar at agricultural manufacturing firm

Carr's

Profits at agricultural supply and engineering firm Carr’s have soared by 45% to £16.6m over the last 12 months.

Revenues were also up by an impressive 16.5% to just over £403m.

The company, which is based in Cumbria, published its full year results this morning.

The firm said it enjoyed a strong performance in UK Agriculture with growth across all areas, reflecting improved farm incomes.

USA feed blocks were significantly ahead of expectations, up 17.7%, driven by recovery in USA cattle prices

Last year Carr’s acquired Animax, a producer of market-leading livestock trace element supplementation products.

Suffolk based Animax, which makes trace element supplementation products for livestock, was bought for an initial cash consideration of £6m.

According to the firm there was also a significant improvement in its engineering division and a strong recovery in UK manufacturing.

Chris Holmes, chairman of Carr’s, said: “We are very pleased to announce a significant improvement in the group’s financial performance for the year, exceeding the board’s expectations, across both the agriculture and engineering divisions.

“This performance was largely as a result of investments we made across the business in recent years, in addition to a recovery in our underlying markets.

“UK Agriculture continued to perform well reflecting the sustained recovery in farm incomes.

“Our USA feed blocks business continued to benefit from the recovery in USA cattle prices and we made further progress on growing our international feed blocks business. Our Engineering division also delivered a significantly improved performance during the year.

“Trading for the new financial year has started in line with the board’s expectations.

“We made further progress during the year on our strategic objectives and continue to believe the breadth of our product offering, investments in acquisitions and research, and our international footprint leaves us well positioned for further growth across both our divisions in the medium term.”

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