TOOMEBRIDGE firm SDC Trailers has seen revenue break through the £150 million mark to confirm its place as one of Northern Ireland's biggest companies.
Turnover rose 38.9 per cent in the year to March 2015 to £150.3m.
It resulted in a massive 82.6 per cent climb in bottom line profits to £5.6m.
Meanwhile, parent company Retlan Manufacturing posted profits of £6.6m on £172.2m turnover.
SDC is the UK's largest trailer manufacturing company. It has projected turnover will reach £170m next year as it targets further growth in the Middle East market.
The company, founded in 1978, last year reported record trailer orders with production exceeding 8,000 units, prompting them to increase output by 30 per cent.
The firm is providing a good news story for the manufacturing sector which has seen several announcements of major job losses in recent weeks including the planned closure of tyre maker Michelin in Ballymena.
In May, SDC announced a major £15m order from rental, lease, maintenance and asset management company TIP trailer services to supply 700 of its new trailers.
That has resulted in a significant upturn in staff numbers which rose to 560 from 405 making the overall wage bill £15.8m.
Directors' salaries totalled £401,370 with the highest paid receiving £122,368.
The overall Retlan group saw the payroll grow to 848.
A spokesman for the group said: "SDC and the Retlan group are delighted at the performance for the year ended in 2015. This performance is down to the quality of our products, our continued innovation, and especially to the hard work of our staff and loyalty of our customer base. Our order books are already very healthy for the whole of 2016, and we look forward to a year of further growth."
Headquartered in Toomebridge, SDC also has production plants in Antrim and Mansfield in England.
Meanwhile, it has announced a number of new orders for trailers and aftermarket parts in Saudi Arabia, where it opened a regional subsidiary at the beginning of last year.
"We have seen a steady number of enquiries from Saudi Arabia and Dubai following the SDC Middle East launch event in January,” said export sales manager Stephen McIvor.
"It’s been a busy year for SDC Middle East and with a wealth of opportunities in this sector and I am confident we will continue to increase our market share with specialist trailer builds, backed by our first class aftermarket parts service.”
SDC’s truck and trailer parts division is also working actively in the region and has secured $150,000 (£98,700) worth of commercial vehicle parts business in the Middle East over the past few months.
