SCOTTISH dairy giant Robert Wiseman today unveiled a six per cent hike in annual profits and announced plans to launch its own-brand extended shelf-life milk.
The group, which is battling rising energy costs, booked a pre-tax profit of £26.7 million, against £25.2m a year earlier.
Turnover increased by 16.2 per cent to £568.6m, while milk volumes surged 14.2 per cent.
During the year, Wiseman ploug
hed additional cash into new product development, including its low fat milk "The One", an extended shelf-life product for Tesco, and a snack pack Disney-branded milk aimed at children.
It plans to launch its own-brand extended shelf-life milk, called "Puriti", later this summer.
Chairman Alan Wiseman said he was pleased with the latest results "given the period of change within the business".
He added: "Against a backdrop of high oil costs, we remain optimistic about the outlook for our business, and look to a period of further stability within the sector and to maintaining the recovery in our operating margins in the period ahead.
"We are delighted with the recent news that planning permission has been granted for our new dairy in Bridgwater and that our sixth dairy is now firmly on track for opening in Autumn 2007."
Last November, the East Kilbride-based company warned that soaring transport and packaging costs had knocked half-year profits by 22 per cent, but that new deals had contributed to a "reasonable outcome" for the full year.
In March, finance director Billy Keane told investors Wiseman had "successfully negotiated an increase with all customers", while also dropping the price the firm pays to farmers by 0.65 pence a litre. Wiseman still pays the best price to farmers despite the recent cut.
As well as benefiting from enhanced contracts with supermarket heavyweights Sainsbury's and Tesco, Wiseman said today year-on-year efficiency improvements of ten per cent had enabled it to overcome the impact of high oil costs.
Chief executive Robert Wiseman said he was confident of further progress on operating margins in the year ahead, adding that the recent planning permission for the new dairy at Bridgwater in Somerset had provided a further boost.
He said: "We are confident this new dairy will be successfully utilised and, once open, will take pressure off our existing English dairies and free up capacity to cope with organic growth.
"The timetable for completion of the first phase is autumn 2007 and orders have been placed for both processing and filling equipment, with an initial capacity of 200 million litres per annum at a cost of £46m."
On the management front, Wiseman said Graeme Jack, currently Scottish managing director of PR firm Trimedia, was joining the dairy group to take on the new role of communications director.
Meanwhile, Douglas Laing is being promoted to the post of risk management and strategic planning director. Both appointments take effect from July 1.
