Ortak, the Orkney company which has become one of the UK's largest designers and manufacturers of gold and silver jewellery, has buffed up its lustre after boosting both profits and sales - and its chief executive said that in spite of the economic slump sales have continued to grow.
"Christmas hasn't been cancelled yet," Alistair Gray, Ortak's managing director, told The Herald yesterday.
Ortak's latest set of accounts, obtained by The Herald from Companies House, also bear out Gray's prediction the previous year that the company would turn in healthy profits in the year to the end of January 2008.
Kirkwall-based Ortak, which was founded in 1967 by Gray's father, Malcolm, is on the up after several years of deepening losses, responding with fresh investment in marketing, branding and design that is now starting to pay big dividends.
Sales jumped to more than £7m in the year, compared with £6.6m the previous year. Pre-tax profits climbed to £177,322, compared with £161,132.
Gray said: "Traditionally, we were a jewellery-production company, but over the past few years we've focused on moving into design and marketing.
"Last year and this year, we invested very heavily in new product development, and this year we also opened two new shops - one in Silverburn in Glasgow and another in Uddingston, Lanarkshire.
"We've also invested very heavily in the brand, and that's now paying off."
He added: "Until the end of summer, our sales were consistently 10% above last year - but we have started to see a bit of a tail-off. Also 25% to 26% of our annual sales come at Christmas, so it's too early to say how the year will end.
"I do think next year will be challenging, but we remain confident."
The business, which is now one of Scotland's best-known brand names, has also tightened its belt in recent years and now has 14 outlets in Scotland and the north of England, as well as an export office in the US.
Gray and his brother Stuart, the production director, took over the reins of the company from their father when he retired in the mid-1990s.
The Orkney business employs a staff of 77 at its Kirkwall jewellery factory, plus a further 90 workers split between the shops and the company's design and marketing office in Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, the latest set of accounts also reveal that directors' pay, including company pensions contributions, dipped to £310,332 during the year, compared with £316,382 the previous year.
Ortak has enlisted tele-vision presenter Amanda Lamb as the new face of the brand.
Among those to have already modelled Ortak jewellery are actress and Hear'Say singer Suzanne Shaw, and Miss Scotland finalist Emma Waterman.
Gray said: "Amanda's beauty is timeless and appeals to such a wide spectrum of women, this new partnership couldn't be any more perfect."
