The managing director of Washington's Encore Group says the firm made a strong recovery following Covid, but has warned of inflationary pressures and materials shortages.
In its latest set of accounts, the envelope and packaging producer saw turnover rise by £4m to £38.9m and operating profits rise from £2.24m to £2.69m. MD David Cooper said he was cautiously optimistic about the firm's performance, but that cost increases, raw material shortages throughout the supply chain and very competitive industry conditions were weighing on the group.
He said: “It goes without saying that we’re delighted to release a positive set of figures. We are immensely proud of the way that our workforce has responded to all the challenges thrown at them over the past couple of years and they have played a vital role in this company’s success.”
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Since acquiring Great Northern Envelope Company Limited out of administration in 2018, Encore has billed itself as the UK's largest independent manufacturer of printed envelopes. The 300-strong firm also makes packaging, including products for the retail, food, and medical sectors.
Mr Cooper added: “We have worked incredibly hard to establish our packaging division since setting it up in 2013 and last year marked a real leap forward in volumes for our packaging products. This has fully justified our investment in new machinery and there is still lots of potential to grow the packaging division further as we move forward.”
Encore said demand its envelope products - which account for the majority of its turnover - remained strong with £2m growth in envelope turnover from 2020 - still 9% below pre-Covid 2019 levels. Mr Cooper added: “We are very pleased with the performance of our envelope division and will continually seek to improve our envelope products as we move forwards. We pride ourselves on offering what we consider to be an unrivalled level of service and technical capability that provides a unique solution to our customers.”
Encore Group operates three sites including envelope operations at Hertburn Industrial Estate in Washington and Shawcross Business Park in Shrewsbury, as well as a packaging factory at North West Industrial Estate in Peterlee.
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