ORKNEY jewellery firm Ortak has achieved record annual sales, new figures from the company showed yesterday.
Ortak said total retail sales grew 10.6% to £6.9million during the year to January 31.
The strong year-round performance included sales growth of 14.1% in December at a time when many other retailers across the UK were struggling against the impact of a slowdown in consumer spending.
Ortak managing director Alistair Gray said: “We traded extremely well during the entire month of December achieving record sales in the final week of the month.
“Sales in the week to 29th December were up 78.3%, compared with the same period in 2006.”
Ortak’s directors are now finalising expansion plans for 2008-09, with the company preparing to add several stores by the end of the year.
Mr Gray said: “It’s been a very positive year for us despite an extremely difficult trading environment.
“The mood throughout the company is extremely buoyant and we are predicting a very optimistic outlook for the year ahead.”
Ortak, whose new spring and summer collections were launched by Nieve Jennings, the current Miss Scotland, in Birmingham last week, said its current trade orders were 150% better than last year.
The firm, celebrating its 40th year, sells its products through 12 shops: two in Orkney, two in Edinburgh, three in Glasgow and one each in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Newcastle and Sheffield. It is one of the largest employers in Orkney, with 80 of its 153 staff based at a 27,000sq ft manufacturing plant and visitor centre at Hatston.