Wales Business, Manufacturing, International Laurence Kilgannon

Growth in sales into the US and Middle East has helped a long-established office equipment maker headquartered in Newport push turnover up past the £80m mark, with underlying profits also rising.

Bisley Office Equipment was originally founded as a car repairs business in 1931, but began to focus on office equipment in the 1940s. Today Bisley employs more than 700 staff with customers including Direct Line, the BBC and PwC.

The company's 17-acre site in Newport was purchased in 1988 and has enabled the company to concentrate on export markets.

In the year to 31 July 2016, turnover at Bisley climbed from £73.2m to £80.9m, while the business posted a pre-tax profit of £1.98m.

A pre-tax profit of £6m was recorded in 2014/15 but, that was fboosted by the sale of a ten-acre manufacturing site in Surrey to Redrow Homes.

"Substantial growth" was achieved from non-European countries, where sales rose from £9.8m to £15.8m. European sales rose by £2.5m to £29.7m, but UK turnover fell by 2 per cent to £35.4m.

Excluding exceptional costs, the business posted an underlying year-on-year increase in profits of £2.7m.

During the period, Bisley spent £2.4m on new machinery and an acquisition while chief executive Richard Blackwell was appointed at the start of 2016.