GROWTH is continuing at Dungannon fertiliser maker Westland Horticulture, its latest company accounts show.
Sales and profits both lifted in the year to last August, though not by as pronounced as the previous 12-month period.
According to figures filed at Companies House, the company had sales of £130.5 million in the year to last August (the corresponding figure for 2016 was £127.7m).
Westland's gross profit came in at £32.5m, but after expenses and exceptional items (which included a £2.6m bad debt write-off), it posted an operating profit of £5.2m (2016: £4.2m).
Bottom line profit jumped by more than a million pounds to £4.1m.
Total employee numbers at the firm at August 2016 fell by just two to 588, made up of 320 staff in production, 142 in sales and 126 in administration, and the firm's total wages bill for the period was £19.7m
The seven directors, led by Edward Conroy and Robert Lavery, were paid a total of just over £1m, with the highest-paid of them (which the report doesn't name) receiving £256,896.
Westland Horticulture is one of the leading horticultural companies in the UK, creating gardening, wild bird care and pet care products, delivering branded goods to consumers across Britain, Ireland and more Continental Europe.
Its leading brand names include Resolva and Aftercut, the fastest-growing lawn and weed-killer products on the market.
The firm - whose holding company is based in the Isle of Man - also trades in Germany, where it owns the popular Seramis brand, and also distributes to retailers in Poland.
