The Letts Filofax business has returned to profit after a restructuring that has cut its global workforce from 416 to 328.

The historic diary publisher which still employs over 250 in Dalkeith made a pre-tax profit of £1.82million in the year to April, according to accounts just filed at Companies House. That was after £698,000 of restructuring costs, and compared with a £5m loss in the previous year.

The savings at Dalkeith amounted to £1m a year, while subsidiaries in North America, France, and Scandinavia were all closed to save another £6m a year. Th e directors say headcount in the UK has been reduced from 372 to 290.

The business still has £18.2m of debt, down from £19,8m, but most of it is owed to HSGP Holdings, the vehicle of Canadian publishing magnate Harolde Savoy who with long—serving managing director Gordon Presly bought the company in 2014. Mr Savoy’s Canadian company Blueline becomes Letts’ new distributor in North America.

Turnover was down from £47m, including discontinued businesses, to £34m, and the underlying profit on continuing business was £3.53m, against a £1.6m loss the previous year.

The slimming down saw 80 jobs in sales and administration disappear but only eight in production.

The directors say: “The major restructuring programme implemented since October 2013 has been effective in resizing and stabilising the business to a lower operating cost model.”