Record profits at Carr's Milling

In the period, pre-tax profits at the engineering division surged from £1.7m to £4.7m, on revenues up 65 per cent to £29.7m, driven by the German operation, Walischmiller. Chief executive Chris Holmes added that a strong forward order book provides for 90-95 per cent of revenues out to 2014. The business will be helped by the completion of a new €5.5m (£4.4m) production facility at Markdorf next October.

Order books at Carr's Milling's agriculture business, which provides animal feed, are strong, too, buoyed by droughts in the US and a wet summer in the UK. This created demand for low and high moisture feed blocks and underpinned a 26 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £8.1m, which more than offset the profit shortfall at the flour milling business. High energy and wheat prices combined with excess industry capacity led to a collapse in profits there from £1.3m to £400,000. But Carr's is taking action. A new £17m flour mill in Kirkcaldy completes in September and Mr Holmes expects profits will recover as competitors are knocked out of the market.

Broker Investec forecasts adjusted pre-tax profits of £13.7m and EPS of 107.4p.