A toilet roll and kitchen towel supplier to the likes of Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons and Wilko's has cut 150 jobs over the last two years as part of an automation drive, it has been revealed.
Lancashire-headquartered Accrol has reduced its headcount from 425 to 275 as it increased automation at its Blackburn, Leyland and Leicester sites.
The news was revealed in newly-filed accounts for the AIM-listed group which also showed its revenue increased from £136.6m to £159.5m in the 12 months to April 30, 2022.
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The company's pre-tax losses were also cut from £3.1m to £2.5m over the same period.
Accrol added that its new financial year "has started well, with volumes, revenues and margins in line with market expectations".
A statement issued to the London Stock Exchange said: "The group is benefiting significantly from the full automation of all of its sites.
"This, together with shift patterns that were changed last year and further simplification of the business, has helped mitigate margin erosion and will help drive margins back to the equivalent of pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.
"Since all the automation programmes have been completed, the group has improved its output significantly across all sites - the facial plant output increased by 16%, the Blackburn and Leyland sites improved by 25% and 30% respectively, and Leicester rose by 60%.
"Like for like headcount in the group's core tissue businesses has reduced from 425 to 275 over the last two years.
"All remaining employees now paid the living wage as a minimum and the group joined the Living Wage Foundation in May 2022."
The company added: "Following the significant progress made during FY20 to transform the manufacturing capability of the business, it was appropriate to review the whole organisation to ensure it was aligned with Accrol's future growth strategy and to deliver world class standards in safety and performance every day.
"The final elements of the business turnaround plan were completed during the year with significant capital investment in automation at our Blackburn manufacturing site.
"The complexity of maintaining a 24/7 operation during the implementation of this substantial project resulted in an element of incremental labour costs as service levels needed to be maintained despite the inevitable disruption to normal operations during the period of transition.
"Once the project had been completed a number of redundancies were incurred as the overall headcount reduced, reflecting the benefits from the automation investment. The total labour cost of the above was £948,000, with associated fees of £86,000."
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