CO Tyrone door designer and manufacturer O&S Doors has reported a slight rise in pre-tax profits after cutting its workforce.
The latest set of accounts for the operation, based near Eglish, revealed the company shed just over 40 production workers last year.
The firm, set up by south Tyrone entrepreneur Peter O’Donnell, was acquired by private equity firm Sun European Partners in mid-2016.
The manufacturer expanded the workforce in its 400,000 sq ft factory to around 383 during 2017. But the increasingly competitive market has resulted in the company’s new owners cutting the workforce over the past two years.
The number of workers last year fell from 355 to 315, taking around £700,000 out of the company’s wage bill.
The accounts for the year ending December 31 2019 showed that staff costs went from £9.98 million in 2018 to £9.28m last year.
Despite sales falling marginally by 0.6 per cent to £33.68m last year, the cut in staff costs partly helped the company record a 10 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £2.4m.
But a bigger tax bill of £448,000 for 2019 left O&S Doors’ final profit figure down on 2018.
In a report accompanying the results, the directors outlined the impact Covid-19 has had on the business in the first half of 2020.
After shutting down operations due to the pandemic, trading has resumed. The company said it had also availed of a number of UK Government support initiatives, including the job retention scheme. It has also deferred its VAT and corporation tax payments.
The directors said the financial impact has been “difficult to predict at this time”, stating that they will “adapt the business plan as necessary to respond to the impact”.
The report highlights the ongoing danger the economic uncertainty poses to the viability of the business.
“Based on the measures taken to reduce costs, the directors believe that the company is well positioned to return to full trading capacity once the period of uncertainty passes.
“However, the ongoing situation indicates that a material uncertainty exists which may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
