Sausage-skin maker Devro saw its first-half sales sizzle, but pre-tax profits fell after it was hit by a £3.1m charge related to the closure of a factory in the Czech Republic, the company�s latest accounts reveal.

Sausage-skin maker Devro saw its first-half sales sizzle, but pre-tax profits fell after it was hit by a £3.1m charge related to the closure of a factory in the Czech Republic, the company's latest accounts reveal.

Revenues at Devro, which is based in Moodiesburn, Lanarkshire, were up 13% at £82.7m for the six months to the end of June, compared with £72.9m for the same period a year earlier, as the "global market for collagen casings continued to grow".

Devro is world leader in the production of skins from animal proteins.

However, pre-tax profit dropped to £5m in the period, down from £6.6m last time.

The £3.1m charge - which the Lanarkshire company described as an "exceptional non-cash asset writedown" - was incurred because of the decline in value of its manufacturing plant in Korenov, in the Czech Republic, which it expects to close next year.

Devro said the closure of the plant, which makes cutisin, a non-edible collagen skin, will generate £2m of savings a year from 2010.

Peter Williams, the company's finance director, said: "Part of the Czech manufacturing capacity is an old plant located in Korenov, about 150 miles from the main production unit in Julemnice ... Some of the machinery is pre-war and there are also energy efficiency issues and European health and safety issues, which would be very expensive to address.

"So we've decided to move the production to the plant at Julemnice. The £3.1m is a non-cash writedown on the value of the asset. There will later be a further £600,000 cost related to the actual closure of the plant."

Meanwhile, the company's half-year figures also revealed £200,000 exceptional income relating to the sale of land at Moodiesburn to a housebuilder in 2005.

Peter Page, who took over as chief executive last year, said that following a review the company had "at last" halted a "long-term decline in prices, and margins are growing again".

Devro declared an interim dividend of 1.425p per share, the same as last year.

Shares in the company yesterday inched up 1p, to 78.75p.