COOKSTOWN manufacturing firm BA Kitchen Components has reported a slight drop in sales and profits in the year to the end of March 2020.
Established in 1990 by twin brothers Brian and Kieran McCracken, who have now stepped by from their day-to-day roles to be executive directors, revenues slipped back from £29.6 million to £28.1 million, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
In turn, the company's bottom-line profit fell from £3.2m in 2019 to £2.3m last year, though BA is still sitting on assets of close to £12.5m.
Operating from sites in Cookstown, Doncaster and Rotherham, BA Kitchen Components had 235 employees on its payroll at year-end, which was up from 231 a year earlier. Its wages bill for the year was £7.2m.
Weeks ahead of its books closing for 2020, the company appointed a new chief executive in former Formica Europe boss Peter Rush.
He arrived with vast experience of working across Europe and in the Far East having worked with a number of BA Components’ major customers and distributors in the UK.
BA, set up when Brian McCracken sold his Suzuki motorbike for £3000 to raise collateral and was initially sustained with a £40 a week grant from Ledu, has grown steadily to become a major manufacturer of kitchen and bedroom doors and accessories in the UK and Irish furniture components industry.
Its ultimate controlling party is Cooperatief H2 equity partners in the Netherlands, who took a majority stake in BA in 2017 to support its development strategy and boost investment and product development.
In notes accompanying the results, the company says it was "adversely affected" by the restrictions brought in to mitigate the covid pandemic, but directors have since taken steps to limit the impact by availing of Government support programmes.
