THE Belfast-based parent company of specialist retailer Park Electrical Services, the UK’s fastest growing power, control and automation technical distributor, has turned in another huge profit on increased sales.
Westbank Business Park Ltd, whose registered office is in the Harbour Estate, is the holding company for a group of wholesaling and retailing electrical component companies operating in the UK and Ireland.
Its best-known customer-facing division is Park Electrical Services (PES Group), which operates from a network of branches in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and Wrexham.
PES makes by far the biggest contribution to Westbank, whose latest financials filed with Companies House show that turnover in the group rose from £26.8 million to £27.9 million in the year to August 2018.
And its bottom line retained profit more than doubled from £1.9 million to £4.1 million.
The accounts show that £2.3m of Westbank's £27.9m sales came in the Republic, though that is just half of the previous year's total of £4.6m.
The average number of people employed by the group during the year jumped from 82 to 97, which in turn pushed up its overall wages bill from £3.3m to more than £3.4m, while directors' salaries jumped from £289,889 to £387,282.
The company was established 45 years ago by Jim McConachie, who remains one of its directors.