COALISLAND-headquartered manufacturing firm Terex GB has reported a 21 per cent jump in profits to £28.3 million last year.
The American-owned company, which makes mobile crushing and screening equipment and is part of a Northern Ireland cluster that satisfies almost half of the world’s demand for such machinery, recorded a strong financial year, which also included an increase in company turnover to just shy of £395 million, a two per cent rise on the 2015 figure (£387 million).
The total profit after tax for the year ending December 31, 2016 amounted to £14.7 million, a fall of almost £3 million on the previous year's total, while the gross profit margin rose from 14.7 per cent to 17 per cent over the 12 months.
In the financial results publihsed on Companies House the firm's acquisition of the trade and assets of Austrian company Linz Limited. In the post balance sheet events it also notes the March 1, 2017 sale of the construction trade of Terex GB, based in Coventry, to French firm Groupe Mecalac.
In their strategic report, directors said the company continued to face "competitive pressure from a global manufacturing market for all of the company's products", but highlighted its continuous plans for growth.
"The company has ongoing development and engineering programmes relating to the introduction of new products and the improvement of existing products," they said.
Over half of the firm’s turnover is in Europe including £118.6m in Britain and Ireland and £109.8m on the continent, but its largest source of business is across the rest of the world, which amounted to £166.6 million of revenue last year.
Staff numbers meanwhile fell by 84 from 1,778 to 1,694, but the company wage bill increased from just over £60 million to £62.4 million over the 12 months.
Terex and Finlay, along with Cookstown-based CDE, contribute to Northern Ireland’s international reputation as a centre of excellence in the design and manufacture of materials handling equipment.
Plant equipment made in the north is sold to customers worldwide for applications as diverse as iron ore mining in India, road construction in Peru, diamond exploration in South Africa and sand washing in the Arabian Gulf.
Indeed according to Invest NI, some 40 per cent of the world’s mobile crushing and screening equipment is made in Co Tyrone.
s
