PAPER maker James Cropper is planning a £1m investment to make its site at Burneside, near Kendal, more resilient to flooding.

The company today reported strong results for the year to April 2.

Pre-tax profits rose 50 per cent from £2.6m to £3.9m, operating profit was 61.5 per cent higher at £6.3m, while turnover rose 5.8 per cent to £87.9m.

Chairman Mark Cropper said: “The group has performed strongly in 2015-16, a testament to the strategies introduced and deployed in the last few years.

“Although we will be catching up with a number of deferred repair projects in 2016-17, growth will continue to be delivered with further capital investments across all divisions in support of focused market developments and group wide efficiency improvements.

“These give me confidence that the group will continue to advance for some years to come.”

He praised the workforce's response to Storm Desmond in December, which caused flooding at Burneside.

He said: “Hardly a single employee did not contribute to the recovery in some way, and many gave up their Christmas break to get us back on our feet.”

But he added that the damage led to the postponement of £0.7m of repair projects, as maintenance teams focused on flood recovery, while the company incurred net exceptional costs of £0.77m as a result of insurance excesses and uninsured losses, despite the award of a grant to alleviate the impact of the flood.

Mr Cropper said: “To mitigate future flood risks, the board has approved £1m of capital investments in 2016-17 to build flood resilience at the Burneside site.”

During the year, the company's technical fibre products division saw the commissioning of a new production line at Burneside – doubling production capacity for non-woven materials – and further investments in the USA.

In paper, it says, growth has been sustained in targeted markets, including packaging, where it won “a number of large global contracts with world leaders in consumer electronics and luxury goods”.

And it said says that its new subsidiary James Cropper 3D Products (3DP), created to provide sustainable moulded fibre products, made “good progress”.

The board is recommending a final dividend of 7.1p, making a total dividend for the year of 9.3p, an increase of 9.4 per cent on 2014-15.