GRAIN and animal feed producer W&R Barnett's rapid growth is continuing unabated after the fourth-generation family business, one of the largest in the north, grew its sales and profits in the year to July.
Having burst through the billion pound turnover milestone in 2017, last year Barnett upped that further to £1.23 billion.
And its pre-tax profits swelled from £46.8 million to £51.6 million, according to figures filed at Companies House.
Barnett, founded in 1896, made two acquisitions during the year.
It bought the Braeside Group - which designs and manufactures corrugated cases and packaging - through its subsidiary Logson Holdings for close to£11m and in December 2017, another subsidiary United Molasses Marketing, acquired Argos Feed Group for £1.2m.
Between them, the two new acquisitions contributed a turnover of £5.4m and an operating profit of £252,716 to the overall figures.
The W&R Barnett group is the holding company of a diversified group of international commodity trading, storage, agri-business and industrial companies.
It has grown from its origins as a grain merchant and expanded its operations to include derivatives, oils and molasses.The group also covers the operation of dockside facilities, the manufacture of animal feeds and horse breeding.
The figures further show that W&R Barnett has grown staff numbers over the year, with the full-time equivalent workforce increasing from 1,485 to 1,567.
This has resulted in a hike in the annual wage bill from just shy of £61m to £63.7m. The directors were paid more than £3.1m.
In the strategic report accompanying the company accounts, the directors described the level of business during the year and the financial position at the year-end as “satisfactory”, and pledged to continue to press for growth.
The directors pledged to continue investing in "people, product development, facilities and suitable acquisitions in order to ensure its ongoing development".
A strategic report accompanying the results hinted that Brexit had brought some uncertainty for the group, but indicated that it was "low-risk".
The directors, led by William Barnett, added: "We are confident that the group is in a strong position to react quickly at the appropriate time when the future trading relationship between the UK and EU becomes clear in order to continue to provide the highest levels of services to our customers."
The figures also showed that the directors recommended the payment of a final dividend of £1,443,000 - double that of the previous year.
Contributions made by the group for charitable purposes also nearly doubled from £48,493 to £89,695.
