Nuts and bolts business Trifast - which has a centre in the West Midlands - has revealed a big boost in profits and unveiled plans to plough in around £2.75 million to build a new factory in China.
Chief executive Jim Barker hailed the company's performance to March 31 as creditable and praised the success of its Wednesbury site. The company would contribute to exploit markets at home and abroad, he said.
The East Sussex-based business yesterday revealed pretax profits before goodwill, exceptional items and profit on sales of fixed assets, of £5.86 million, up 26 per cent on the year ended March 2004.
Pretax profits after goodwill and exceptionals rose to £5.56 million, 62 per cent up on the year to March 2004.
The company said the biggest profit growth area had come from within Europe and principally from the UK.
It continued to do well in Asia and Singapore and remained focused on high value specialist production. The company was increasingly looking to cash in on the growing market in China.
The aim was to build "a major presence within the Chinese economy" and to that end Trifast planned to invest $5 million (around £2.75 million) in a new purpose built plant in China over the next three years.
The factory would support the production of over 150 million parts every month. The statement said: "This decision is essential as we look to produce operationally efficient high quality product for worldwide consumption at competitive and profitable pricing."
Mr Barker said full year figures at Trifast, which primarily manufactures in Asia, reflected a creditable performance which underpinned the company's strategy and overall objectives.
He said: "Additionally, through the operational offlicences and productivity improvements achieved across the businesses we will continue to exploit the strength of our brand both in the UK and overseas to operate efficiently and profitably even in challenging markets."
Mr Barker said he was very pleased with the progress and effort of staff and management at the firm's Wednesbury plant which employs 75 people.
Group turnover in the 12 months to the end of March this year was £103.8 million against £102.4 million in the same period last year.
By destination, 48 per cent of group sales were outside the UK with 30 per cent to mainland Europe, eight per cent to Asia and ten per cent to the US.
The final dividend was 1.41p per share, up from 1.34p, making a total payment for the year of 2.10p, up from 2p.
