PREMIER Hytemp, the North Sea-focused steel business sold earlier this month by Murray International Holdings, reported rising sales and a return to profitability in its final full year as part of former Rangers Football Club owner Sir David Murray's business empire.
Premier Hytemp Holdings, based at Newbridge near Edinburgh, made a £1.5 million pre-tax profit in the year to June 30, 2012, accounts filed with Companies House revealed.
This was a significant turnaround from the £1.7m loss of the previous year.
Turnover was up 15.1% at £60.3m, of which £12.6m was generated in the UK.
However, net debt increased over the year from £29.1m to £31.6m.
The directors of the company said in their report: "The Premier Hytemp businesses have had a very strong year with significant growth in terms of sales and profitability.
"Headcount has been expanded in critical areas to further develop commercial firepower, manufacturing capacity and further improve product quality and customer service."
Overall staff numbers rose from 184 to an average of 225 during the year.
However, there were redundancies following a reorganisation at its alloy scrap arm Ireland Alloys, which cost the company £50,000 in exceptional charges.
The highest-paid director a the company received £431,000, including pension contributions. This was up 8.3% on the previous year.
Premier Hytemp was sold in a £34.5m management buy-out led by managing director Donald Wilson and backed by private equity house Dunedin.
Premier Hytemp has manufacturing facilities in Edinburgh, Sheffield and Singapore, operations in Calgary, Canada, and is shortly to open a base in Dubai.
Premier Hytemp was formed in 2008 when Sir David's Premier Alloys, established in 1985, acquired Sheffield-based Hillfoot Steel which owned oil specialist Hytemp, set up in 1976.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article