Cosalt, which provides safety equipment and services to the offshore oil and gas and marine industries, said yesterday that after exiting its last legacy businesses its focus on core services was paying off.
Chairman David Hobdey said: “We have made excellent progress and have already established Cosalt as a leading European provider of critical safety equipment and services.
“Our goal over the longer term is to become a major global player in a market underpinned by strict regulatory obligations, which ensure robust demand for our services and provide good visibility for our order book.
“We are taking a pragmatic view of our expansion options, recognising that a step-by-step approach is best suited to the current economic climate. With the group benefiting from our focused strategy, now that we are free from the costs of realigning the business and with current trading in line with our expectations, we expect to see further progress in 2009.”
Calum Melville, the Aberdeen-based managing director of Cosalt Offshore, which employs 400 at Bridge of Don and also has operations in Lowestoft, Stavanger and Rotterdam, said the division had achieved turnover of £41.8million in the year to October 26 and operating profits before special items of £8.3million.
He said: “We see opportunities in 2009 and expect to grow both turnover and employment. We are also looking for acquisition targets to spread our operations beyond Europe.”
Cosalt said yesterday its development would be driven by organic growth in offshore and marine activities. It said group turnover for the year from continuing businesses was £105million, up from £66.9million the year before.
Pre-tax profits before one-off costs were £7.23million compared to profits of £968,000 the previous year.
Losses relating to the last of its discontinued legacy operations of Holiday Homes and Banner were £25.5million, and with one-off costs this resulted in statutory losses for the year of £24.8million.