British Polythene Industries (BPI) has announced its results for the year ending 31 December 2015, revealing that with sales of £468 million, its operating profit before restructuring costs increased to £28.6 million.
Commenting on the results, Cameron McLatchie, chairman of BPI, said, "Our results have shown an increase for the seventh consecutive year.
"This outcome is extremely encouraging, given turbulent polymer costs during the first half, the adverse impact of currency on our European profits, and a year which delivered a marginal overall reduction in volumes."
The improvement in performance can be attributed to BPI’s North American operation’s return to profit, as previously reported problems with plant installation were solved. However, its UK and European returns were impacted by turbulent raw-material costs in the first half of the year, when the price of polymer rose by 50 per cent.
With reduced demand for its products from certain sectors in the UK, and the loss of a contract to supply refuse sacks to a major retailer, BPI’s total volumes reduced by less than 1 per cent to 272,000 tonnes. Within that number, it saw an increase in demand for silage stretchwrap of just over 2 per cent.
UK returns still increased year on year, boosted by a strong performance from BPI’s recycling programme. European returns also increased by 7 per cent on a local currency basis, but exchange translation negated this growth.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Jenny Whelan. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.