Technical sales buoy James Cropper profits
LAKE District paper and advanced materials manufacturer James Cropper has seen earnings lifted by better sales to the aerospace and defence markets.
In the year to March the Kendal-based company said turnover grew by £1m to £79.2m while pre-tax profits jumped to £2.1m from £800,000.
UK sales were up 4% and sales to the US were up 24%, but the overall export figure was down 1% due to a 12% drop in revenue from eurozone.
Its largest division, speciality papers, saw turnover fall by 3% to £57.6m and operating profits halve to £700,000. The company said this was down to the economic uncertainty, “which led to the loss of confidence amongst customers in many export paper markets in 2011 shows no immediate sign of lifting”.
The Technical Fibre Products arm rebounded with growth in defence and aerospace. Operating profits more than doubled to £1.4m on sales of £12.5m, up 6%. Turnover grew by 25% in the converting business to £13.7m and profits jumped to £1m from £200,000.
Chairman Mark Cropper said: “The recovery of TFP and Converting in the past year was very pleasing and is expected to be sustained as the current financial year progresses. I anticipate that we will make further gains in Speciality Papers’ home market and non-European export markets in the coming year to offset reduced sales into continental Europe.
“Recent investments and the completion of the restructuring process are also expected to impact favourably on the profitability of Speciality Papers in the current financial year. During the course of the current year we intend to strengthen the sales and marketing capability of each of our businesses through selective recruitment in order to deliver the growth plans being formulated under Phil Wild’s leadership.”
Last year the company said it would cut around 8% of its workforce, some 40 jobs, in a bid to save £1m a year. This move cost the company £800,000 in redundancy payments. The group’s pension deficit has increased to £8m from £2.1m due to a fall in bond yields.
