Subsea pipe specialist Flexlife fell into the red last year after it shut down its operations in Brazil.
The company has shifted its focus in the Americas and has since beefed up its presence in Houston.
Stuart Mitchell, one of the founders of the innovative flexible pipe firm, has relocated to the Texas state to further consolidate the company’s American hub.
The Bridge of Don-based firm made a pre-tax loss of £515,000 in its most recent financial year, compared with a profit of £347,000 profit the in 2012.
Turnover was down slightly to £14.4million in the year to the end of March 2013, compared with £15.3million the previous year.
But the firm said sales on an operating basis rose 34% in 2013.
This was due to sales of £4.6million which Flexlife said was “in relation to a project considered non-recurring”.
The company’s writedown on the closure of its office in Rio amounted to £867,000.
“Therefore on a comparable basis the pre-tax profit has remained similar,” the company said in its accounts.
The company spent a number of years breaking into the Brazilian market after a series of trials of its technology with Petrobras Brasil starting in 2008.
The company took on a Brazilian executive manager and set up an office in the country in 2011, representing a “significant investment”.
In 2012 it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian energy giant to provide integrity-management and specialised engineering services.
In 2010, two private-equity investors, Maven Capital Partners and Simmons Parallel Energy (SPE), injected £5.5million into the business, taking a minority stake.
The company paid no dividends on equity capital in its most recent year, although it paid out £1.5million in 2012.
The company was founded in 2008 by a trio of businessmen including Mr Mitchell and Carl-Petter Halvorsen.
As of end of March last year the company employed 61, up from 43 in 2012.
Flexlife has a third office in Newcastle.
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