CARRON Phoenix, the sink manufacturer which is being closed by its Swiss owners with the loss of about 180 jobs, more than doubled turnover to £23 million in 2016.

The 110 per cent increase came because of increasing sales volumes at the company, which the Franke Group is closing to move production to Slovakia.

The Falkirk business can be traced back to 1759, and made cannons used at the Battle of Waterloo.

It made a pre-tax loss of £3.4m, reversing a £410,000 profit in 2015, but more than £5.3m was spent on redundancy payments, and other ‘termination’ costs.

Further to this, £295,000 was set aside to cover the costs of clearing up the manufacturing facility once it has been closed.

Writing in accounts newly filed at Companies House, Ian King, who still retains a small shareholding in the business, said: “Despite the planned closure of the production activity, it is expected that the company will continue to provide logistics services to other companies within the Franke Group.”

A spokeswoman for Fanke said: We will retain our UK warehousing and distribution facilities at Carron Phoenix in Falkirk, ensuring continuation of employment for 23 employees. For the rest of the building we can’t say anything at the moment as there is still no decision taken.”