The company, which is one of the leading manufacturers of collagen products for the food industry, said sales of its Select collagen brand had made a big contribution to this increase. The continued Euro crisis had failed to dent demand and sales, the company stated.
However, it said UK and Ireland volumes of edible collagen were down, as a small number of product lines had shifted back to hog gut casing.
In its interim results statement, the company said the global market for collagen casings continued to expand due to the economic growth and increased meat consumption in emerging markets.
High sheep gut prices and limited availability also provided good opportunities in developed markets, the company said.
Board plans to invest £35m
The Devro board plans to invest £35m (€44.72m) in 2012 to increase capacity and enhance productivity, of which £10.2m (€13.03m) has already been pumped into the business, it said.
It added that recently installed lines in its Scotland facilities were now in full production and commissioning continued on a new line in the US.
Investment in additional capacity in the Czech Republic was proceeding as planned, with the full benefits set to begin to be felt in late 2013, it said.
Revenues, profit
Sales revenues grew 7.7% in the six months to June 30, from £107.1m (€136.85) in the same period in 2011 to £115.4m (€147.47m), said Devro. Pre-tax profit rose by 5.7%, from £19.1m (€24.41m) to £20.2m (€25.81m).
“Sales have increased across a wide range of markets and the good momentum from the second half of 2011 has continued into 2012,” said Steve Hannam, Devro chairman. “The outlook for the remainder of the year is for continued volume growth particularly of sales of differentiated products such as Select, supported by further manufacturing improvements arising from our capital programme.
“We remain on track to meet the board’s expectations for the full year.”