A historic butchers has returned to the black during its latest financial year as its sales surged.
Althams Catering Butchers, which is headquartered in Morecambe, has reported a pre-tax profit of £441,234 for the 12 months to March 31, 2022, up from the £675,781 loss it made in the prior year.
According to newly-filed documents with Companies House, the business also achieved a turnover of £11.7m, up from £4.7m.
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However, the accounts also show that the average number of people employed by the company during the year dropped to 66.
That compares to 73 in the prior year, 118 before that and 123 in the final year before the pandemic struck.
The company was founded in 1856 and its main activities include the hospitality, hotel and restaurant trade with a small number of retail businesses.
A statement signed off by the board said: "Our customer base was completely open for normal trade by the end of July 2021, a much needed and grateful return.
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"The view of the directors is that one of the company's main strengths is excellent debtors and creditor control, which provided vital in managing our working capital during this year.
"This strict cash control is maintained by close contact with customers so that credit difficulties are avoided by early action.
"As FY22 came to an end we entered into a rather different challenge of energy prices, feed and fertiliser price increases due to the war in Ukraine and employment shortages.
"These challenges are not going away and with inflation still rising we approach the next FY with consolidation, organic growth and maintaining service levels at an above industry average."
The company added that the directors are running the business with a "hands on approach", together with a "smaller, but effective senior management team".
On the future, the firm said: "The business maintains a strong customer base and even with the inflationary costs is positioned well to be able to react to these.
"In the medium term, the company will continue to strike to improve profitability in face of the challenges."
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