LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Norish shares jumped over 13% on Wednesday as the cold storage company reported strong sales and profit growth.
The AIM-listed company reported a 31.5% increase in revenues to £42.3m compared to the previous year, helping drive a 96% increase in operating profit to £1.71m and a 138% increase in profit before tax to £1.5m.

Ted O'Neill, chairman of Norish, said: "The North West cold store division which comprises the freehold sites at Wrexham and Birmingham performed strongly in 2017, reflecting a combination of increased intakes, greater blast freezing volumes, improved pricing with an increasing focus on costs, particularly towards the back end of the year."

Norish's South East cold storage division also performed well, with a 10.8% increase in sales reflecting further higher intakes and greater blast freezing volumes.

The protein sourcing division also improved its revenues, seeing a 41% rise to £27.4m, but contributed an unchanged £0.53m for the period.

Over the year the company's net debt increased by 4% to £5.4m.

"We expect the group's cash conversion metrics to continue to improve through 2018, driven by an improved operating performance, lower tax rate and reduced capital expenditures," said O'Neill.

Thus far in 2018 the cold storage divisions have both delivered profit growth compared to the same period the previous year and the company believes that its dairy division has "significant scope" to grow throughout the year following strong spring calfing.

As of 0817 BST, Norish's shares were up 13.55% at 88.00p.

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