US multinational Caterpillar’s Northern Ireland engineering operation recorded a pre-tax profit of £18.4 million last year.
In a new financial report filed with Companies House, the engineering group said a programme to restructure its northern business, which led to hundreds of redundancies and the sale of multiple property assets over the past few years, was now complete.
Caterpillar (NI) Ltd’s workforce saw little change in 2023, averaging 937 people.
It followed a period of sustained downsizing, where the US corporation cut around 2,000 people from its northern workforce over a 12-year period.
Caterpillar has also sold off significant parts of its Larne manufacturing operations, where it makes generators under the FG Wilson brand.
In commentary published alongside its accounts for the year ending December 31 2023, Caterpillar (NI) Ltd’s directors said: “The restructure that saw changes to the company estate footprint has been completed and no further reconfigurations are anticipated.
“The company looks forward to a future of solid demand across its product lines, whilst playing its part in any applicable group sustainability initiatives.”
Caterpillar NI reported a 5% increase in turnover to £542.6m last year, “mainly due to the growth on the volume of the power module market”.
The report revealed a £10m fall in sales to the ‘rest of Europe’ was offset by a £31m increase in sales to the ‘rest of the World’, with UK sales rising by around £4m.
Caterpillar NI’s sales to the rest of the world overtook UK sales in 2023.
Cost of sales increased by almost £6m to £495.8m, while staff costs increased 8.5% year-on-year to £47.1m.
Commenting on its performance in the current year, Caterpillar said it expects to see “a slight temporary softening of volume across a couple of sectors”, but it said that should be offset by continued growth in the power module product line.
