Engineering and agriculture company Carr's Group has said trading for this year is "in line with expectations".

The firm - which has its headquarters in Stanwix, Carlisle - has also said it is "encouraged" by its prospects for the future.

It has stated that all parts of the company concerned with British agriculture are performing well, with feed volumes and like-for-like retail sales running ahead of their equivalents in 2016 and machinery revenues "significantly ahead".

The Carrs Billington Agriculture (Sales) division - which trades in farm products - has taken over the trade and assets of Mortimer Feeds, a feed merchant business based in Cheshire.

Feed block sales in the UK have been "in line with expectations" and have grown but in the the USA things have been "disappointing" due to the impact of lower cattle prices. This decline in the American market had been anticipated.

British manufacturing has been affected by contract delay reported earlier this year and the pressures in the oil and gas market.

The company added though: "Factory throughput, however, is currently high with a steady pipeline of opportunities building. The delayed contract has now been signed and this will be delivered through the next financial year into 2018/19."

Its remote handling business is performing well, particularly in China and has its highest level of order "for a number of years".

Its remote handling business is currently performing well, with high levels of activity manufacturing products for the Chinese market. The order book is currently at its highest level for a number of years resulting in an encouraging outlook.

Tim Davies, chief executive, said: "It is pleasing to see UK agriculture continuing to improve, buoyed by the improvement in farmgate milk prices and, with green shoots of recovery in the USA market, we are confident of the medium term prospects within our Agriculture division.

"We are pleased to report that the delayed contract in Engineering has now been signed and will be delivered in the next financial year, in line with our existing expectations. In addition we have a strong pipeline in place and our remote handling business is performing ahead of expectations.

"We will continue to focus on growth, both through the organic development of our businesses and through selective acquisitions and the Board expects to report results for the full year in line with its expectations."

The group expects to issue its preliminary results for the year ending September 2 on November 13.