COUNTY Tyrone fertiliser maker Westland Horticulture is back in clover after significantly growing its business in the last year both organically and through acquisition.
The company, established in 1990 in Dungannon, processes and distributes products for the gardening and horticultural markets and also sells bird seed and related products.
Since its early days of producing compost, Westland has grown in size and strength and is now one of the leading and fastest growing horticultural companies in the UK.
According to figures filed at Companies House, the company had sales of £127.7 million in the year to last August (the corresponding figure for 2015 was £91.9m but covered just an eight-month period).
Westland's gross profit came in at £33.3m, but after expenses and one-off exceptional items which cost more than £3m, it posted an operating profit of £4,221,336.
The one-off items included a bad debt write-off of £768,000 and also a £2,389,167 cost towards integration after its acquisition the previous year of the Aim-listed William Sinclair at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
Westland had bought the trade and specific assets of William Sinclair in July 2015 in a pre-pack deal for a total consideration of £13.5m, of which £12.1m was in cash. Sinclair was behind the J Arthur Bower's compost and Deadfast weed killer brands and was horticulture supplier to B&Q and Tesco.
Westland's latest accounts show that a cash dividend of £1.5m was paid during the year. In addition, dividends in specie were transacted in relation to the disposal of the investments in its subsidiary undertakings, Cronus Logistics, Crest Gardens and SP Zoo to the parent company, Westland Holdings Ltd.
As these subsidiaries had liabilities, the dividend in specie (this is a distribution to shareholders in a form other than cash) resulted in an increase in shareholders funds of £3,325,399.
Total employee numbers at the firm at August 2016 rose to 590, made up of 327 staff in production, 147 in sales and 116 in administration. The firm's total wages bill for the period was £21.7m
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 £250,050.
Westland's leading brand names include Resolva and Aftercut, the fastest-growing lawn and weed-killer products on the market.
The company also trades in Germany, where it owns the popular Seramis brand, and also distributes to retailers in Poland.
