Boughey, the food distribution business of NWF, has seen sales rise from £32.9m to £39.2m as a result of capacity expansion at its Wardle headquarters. Operating profit, at £2m was up from £500,000 the year before.
The group said storage was at full capacity from August 2008 to January 2009 with overall fill at an average of 104,000 pallets, 91 per cent of capacity. This compares with a fill of 70 per cent in the year before.
Group sales were up 5.4 per cent to £380.6m while operating profit rose 53.4 per cent to £8.9m.
Chairman Mark Hudson said: “We implemented our strategy to focus the Group as a specialist distributor of food, feed and fuel and completed the sale of the Garden Centre division. The proceeds of the sale and our focus on cash and working capital have reduced net debt by over 60 per cent.
“Progress to date has been satisfactory with all divisions starting the year as planned. In spite of the poor general economic outlook, demand for the group’s products and services remains robust.”
