INDEPENDENT drinks bottling firm Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse has seen its profits dip by 21% due to rising costs

The Ayrshire company increased its turnover marginally from £38.55 million to £38.64m according to accounts covering the 12 months to September 30, 2012.

Turnover from the UK actually increased from £32.05m to almost £32.6m and European figures improved from just short of £2m to £2.27m, but there was a drop in trade from the rest of the world from £4.5m to £3.8m.

Glen Catrine is part of the drinks empire controlled by Sandy Bulloch and his family and which also includes Loch Lomond Distillery Company and wholesaler Inverarity Morton.

The accounts for Glen Catrine show a near £1.3m hike in the cost of sales contributed to pre-tax profits declining from £4.05m to £3.2m.

Writing in the accounts, the directors said: "Despite continuing changes in the market and increasing purchase costs which had an impact on our turnover we have retained our margin during the year under review.

"We continue to show strong results for the year and expect to retain a steady margin in future years."

The accounts go on to show gross margin at the company slipped from 27.1% to 23.8% although the figure had been below 20% as recently as 2009.

Stock levels decreased from almost £2.5m to just short of £1.95m with finished goods dipping from £2.27m to £1.6m, but raw materials and consumables were up from £172,145 to £356,737.

Average employee numbers edged up from 121 to 124 due to additions of workers in the warehouse with overall staff costs growing from £3.4m to £3.6m.

Directors' remuneration increased from £812,353 to £825,272 with the highest paid seeing a small dip from £271,367 to £270,204.

The Bulloch family can trace its roots in the Scotch whisky trade to 1842 and a wholesaling business in Glasgow.

Sandy Bulloch, now 87, joined the family business in the 1940s and helped to build up a chain of retail outlets under the livery of A.Bulloch & Co.

A wholesale company, William Morton, was later formed to supply beers, wines and spirits across Scotland.

The Glen Catrine bottling business was set up in 1974 initially to service the own label whisky, gin and vodka sold in the retail shops.

Although the shops have all now closed Glen Catrine has grown into one of the largest independent spirits bottlers in Scotland including for the High Commissioner whisky brand and Glen's vodka.