Macfarlane Group sees profits rise

Mar 18 2008

Glasgow packaging giant also looking for more acquisitions

PACKAGING company Macfarlane Group has reported pre-tax profits up 67 per cent to £2.5 million.

Turnover increased by 13 per cent to £119.7 million while net debt was reduced to £3.1 million due to disposals of North American interests.

The packaging distribution division was the biggest contributor to the results as turnover increased 15 per cent to £90.2 million while profit more than trebled to £1.3 million.

The company said they are now three times the size of their nearest competitor and have a UK market share of more than 10 per cent.

Chief Executive Peter Atkinson said they will also be targeting more acquisitions in the coming year.

He said: "We are pretty pleased with the way 2007 has gone for the group.

"We go into 2008 with a group which is much better shaped and has less exposure to the US economy.

"We started the programme of building our packaging distribution through acquisitions.
"We would ideally like to do a couple more acquisitions in 2008.

"The sorts of companies we are looking at are five to ten million in sales so local small to medium sized."