An historic Dundee textiles wholesaler is targeting further sales growth in overseas markets after delivering an improved full-year performance.
Newly published accounts at Companies House show Wester Gourdie Industrial estate-based Wemyss Fabrics (Holdings) Limited generated sales of £6.75 million in the year to November 30, up from £6m in 2014.
Pre-tax profits also grew by almost a quarter of a million pounds in the period to produce a return of £970,116.
The company has two trading subsidiaries in Wemyss Fabrics and Sekers Fabrics.
Wemyss caters for the residential interior design market while its sister business operates in the commercial contract space and has been involved in the fit-out of hotels, restaurants, pubs and cruise ships.
Sekers managing director Ian Tatnell said the two companies operated separately but worked closely within the wider group context.
Together they employed an average of 46 staff during 2015, with teams involved in sales, purchasing, fabric design and warehousing.
The accounts show the vast majority of the firm’s revenues are generated in the UK but Mr Tatnell said exports were key to the company’s growth mix going forward.
It is a strategy the group has pursued for the last four years and is paying dividends with products being shipped from Dundee around the world.
“The UK is our biggest market followed by Europe but we also do good business in the Middle East, America and Asia,” he said.
“Some of the fabrics that we design and sell go into both the residential and contract markets.
“Our businesses are intrinsically linked and, in the group, we are very buoyant.
“Sekers is growing 20% to 25% each year. It’s a little bit less in Wemyss as there is more competition in the residential market, but it is still positive.”
He added: “We have a well developed UK business base.
“Selling those same products throughout the world is what we have concentrated on for the past four years and that is our strategy going forward.”
Wemyss Fabrics Holdings has had its operational base in Dundee for the past 10 years but the business can trace its history back to the 19th Century when it was founded by brothers George and James Johnston.
The pair established a small factory at East Wemyss in Fife to take advantage of the opportunity brought by powered looms.
The company was bought by its present owners in 1981 and manufacturing continued at East Wemyss until 2003. The firm later relocated to Sekers in Whitehaven before its switch to Dundee in 2006.