Leading Scottish cheese maker Lactalis McLelland has bounced back into the black.
The latest accounts for the company, which owns the Orkney, Galloway and Seriously Strong cheddar brands, show a return to profit against a decrease in sales.
Accounts filed with Companies House reveal the firm posted pre-tax profits of £5.155million for the year ended December 31, 2016.
This compares with a pre-tax loss of £16.378million the year before.
Turnover at the firm was down 7.48% to £172.762million, from £186.735million previously.
The bulk of sales were to the UK, accounting for £151.829million of turnover.
Sales to Europe were down to £15.817million and sales to the rest of the world nearly doubled to £5.116million.
In his statement accompanying the accounts, company director Mark Taylor said: “The trading environment has remained challenging with the market for dairy products remaining highly competitive.
“Milk price fluctuations have led to falling values of stocks and consequential reductions in the market price for cheddar. Matured products will have been manufactured at higher milk prices than those prevailing at the time of sale.”
He said the branded cheddar market continued to be competitive during the year, with the key challenge being the transfer of higher input costs to the market.
“The business continued to support the Seriously Strong and other key cheddar brands with advertising and promotional investments,” added Mr Taylor.
“Our main continental brands – President and Galbani – performed well delivering category growth in the year. Rachel’s organic milk brand also performed well with increased volume and market shares. With the volatility and an increased focus on raw material and production costs, results improved.”
Accounts also revealed the company, which employed an average of 368 staff in the year, paid its highest-paid director £332,000 in the year. This is up £74,000 on last year’s pay cheque of £258,000.
Looking to the future, Mr Taylor said further investment was planned in marketing and promotional activity, and the company also planned to expand its work with supermarket own brand products.
