CAR parts firm Ryobi has recorded a 17 per cent jump in turnover for the second year running.
The Carrickfergus-based manufacturer had sales of more than £75.2 million in 2015 - up from £64m in 2014 and £55m the previous year.
But profits before tax were down 56 per cent to £862,442 although directors said this was "in line with company's expectations" due to the cost of launching new products.
The firm makes aluminium die-cast products for the European car market and uses engineering tools at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen's University Belfast to research ways to reduce the manufacturing cost of each of its castings.
In their report filed with annual accounts at Companies House, directors said: "Whilst volumes continued to grow in 2015 with ramp up in production of new products, the company incurred high product launch costs."
"New product volumes are still low and will ramp up to full production volumes in the coming years. In the current climate, the directors are satisfied with the result for the year and anticipate that the company will continue to trade profitably in the future."
And they said significant growth was expected in the coming year.
In February 2014, Ryobi announced its parent company was injecting £32m into the facility in a move also back by £2.1m from Invest NI.
"The company has secured new contracts that will commence production in 2016/2017, reaching full production volumes in 2017/2018. In order to fulfil these projects the company has committed to a major capital investment programme over the next fie year and also has a programme to increase employment over this period," directors said.
The firm added almost 70 new roles over the year taking staffing levels to 395 and making its overall wage bill £12.9m.
Directors' pay, including pension contributions, came to more than £192,000.
