Dog food manufacturer Butcher's Pet Care has grown its sales for a ninth successive year as it benefited from increased production at its new £40m headquarters and factory.
The company, which returned to the black last year following heavy levels of investment, also boosted profits further thanks to the rise in revenue.
Turnover at the Northamptonshire business jumped to £87.1m in the year to 31 July 2014, compared with £83.1m in the previous 12 months.
Butcher's, set up in 1982 by Graham Baker as Midland Pet Food Canners to use by-products from the family's butchery business, opened the new head office and manufacturing facility in Crick in 2012
It provides the manufacturer with up to 50 per cent extra capacity meaning up to five-million cans of dog food can roll off the production lines each week. Sales are expected to hit £100m in the next couple of years once the facility hits full speed.
Butcher's also exports dog food to Italy, the Benelux countries and Poland, with £4.5m of total sales coming from overseas this year.
The additional overall revenue in 2013/14, as well as continuous improvements in production processes, helped to push up operating profit from £2.9m to £3.9m, with similar figures at a pre-tax level. A period of investment, including £38m pumped into the headquarters, had dented the bottom line in 2011/12 contributing to a small loss.
"The group has made an encouraging start to the new financial year with market conditions remaining competitive," chairman Graham Baker said in his statement in the accounts.
He told Insider: "We are very pleased that our continuing growth in sales has led to an improved profit following our factory move of three years ago. With new UK customers and a growing export market, we are very hopeful for further improvements this year."
Butcher's sold a parcel of land for housing development in November 2013 for a net price of £5.2m, releasing £5.1m of the revaluation reserve in the balance sheet. The cash generated from the sale helped reduce net bank borrowings from £11.6m to £4.1m.
