CRUMLIN medical diagnostics firm Randox has recorded an almost 44 per cent jump in profits as demand for its products grow worldwide.
Operating profits for the firm reached £20.7 million in 2015 (against £14.4m the previous year) as turnover climbed 4.3 per cent to £96m from £92m.
Randox, founded by Dr Peter Fitzgerald in 1982 is one of the world's leading diagnostic manufacturing companies with a range of more than 2,000 products.
Its primary products include laboratory analysers, reagents, quality control serum, biochips, food diagnostics and toxicology products.
In a strategic report filed with annual accounts at Companies House, directors said the increased sales, "can be attributed to the impact of diversification in our current product offering into new markets and the introduction of novel products".
The group, which files as Randox Holdings, employs 1,129 at various sites across Ireland and sells to 145 countries across the world
The total wage bill is recorded as just shy of £30.3m while total pay for directors reached £166,000.
By the end of the year, the group's net assets had increased 28 per cent to £62.1m.
Notes with the accounts meanwhile said it incurred £8.8m development expenditure during 2015.
Earlier this month, Randox said its overall sales since being set up had surpassed £1 billion.
It said the landmark was reached following a deal in Saudi Arabia which saw it sell the highly innovative Respiratory Infection Biochips.
And from next year, the company's healthcare wing Randox Health will begin a five-year stint as main sponsor of the Grand National in a bid to raise its public profile.
It hopes the deal will boost plans to launch 50 health clinics across Britain and Ireland over the next five years.
Last year, Randox announced plans to turn the former Massereene barracks in Antrim - where two British soldiers were shot dead in 2009 - into a science park.
The £161m plan is expected to completed by around 2019 and will eventually provide work for 540 new staff and a further 200 existing workers.
It will also move its headquarters to the facility while maintaining a significant presence in Crumlin.
Randox also has plans to create a hospitality centre outside Bushmills after purchasing 1,200 acres of land including the 19-bedroom Dundarave House.
In addition to its Irish and British operations, Randox has facilities in the US, France, Italy, India, Poland, China, Russia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Croatia and Dubai.
