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Losses more than doubled at Hull-headquartered bathroom products manufacturer Ideal Standard, despite sales increasing by 20 per cent.

A large tax expense was highlighted as the principal reason for the £2.8 million hit, up on 2020’s £1.2 million, with directors underlining a “strong financial position with a healthy balance sheet and good trading prospects”. Turnover was up from £120.4 million to £144 million in 2021, “mainly due to the easing of restrictions around the pandemic leading to increased sales orders,” finance director Rachel Whittaker underlined.

Home improvement and new home building surged on the back of lockdown, as has been seen in results from the likes of regional heavyweights Howden and Wren in the kitchen sphere.

Read more: Record sales, margin and profit for Croda in first half of 2022

Ideal, producer of the Armitage Shanks range, Sottini, and the eponymous brand, saw deferred tax expenses increase from £2.1 million to £5.2 million in the year. Sales remained lower than the pre-pandemic high of £156.5 million, on which it made a £2.3 million profit.

Operating in Hull since 1936, The Bathroom Works on National Avenue is now purely the commercial base of the business, with the last element of manufacturing - baths - ending there in 2019, switching to Egypt with the loss of 85 jobs.

Factory space has been sold and converted into a business park.

It remains an employer of 235 people, serving health, education and commercial sectors, alongside residential, with the º£½ÇÊÓƵ its main market.