Fulmars pre-tax profits have dropped 13% to 4m but chief executive Mike Taylor said the group put in a good performance in a tough market.


Sales rose 5.2% to 40.5m in the year to 31 December 2000, which Taylor said was "an excellent result in a market where there is generally an excess of capacity with little or no increase in demand".


Despite the drop in profits, Taylor said the groups pre-tax margin of 9.9% was "in the upper end of the results achieved by the industry as a whole".


"Were well organised and efficient and that hasnt just been the case for the last week, its been like that for a very long time. So when conditions are tough were better placed than many to survive the experience," he said.


As well as tough conditions, the profits decrease was a result of increased overheads and payroll costs resulting from the set-up of paperback book arm Bookmarque.


But Taylor said the move into paperbacks had been a success. The plant is producing 12m books per annum and is due to move from a single to a double shift, and eventually a triple shift, operation.


No significant investment is planned for the coming year but Taylor pointed out that Fulmar had invested 14m in the past two years primarily on Bookmarque and a highly-specified eight-colour press for Royle Corporate Print.


Shares fell 9p on the back of the news to 66.5p.


Story by Lauretta Roberts