CARPET firm Gaskell today bucked the gloomy trend for East Lancashire manufacturers by announcing record sales and profits.

The Altham-based firm, which employs more than 500 at its East Lancashire factories, saw profits before tax jump by 38 per cent to £5.05 million last year.

The latest increase means the group has seen profits increase five-fold in the past four years.

The firm has also been one of the stock market's strongest performers and since Christmas the shares have risen by more than 60 per cent.

The group manufactures carpets, carpet tiles and underlay mainly for commercial customers for use in buildings such as hotels and offices. It also manufactures material for car interiors.

Sales across the group, which owns Rishton-based Gaskell Carpets and Gaskell Textiles which operates mills in Clayton-le-Moors and Oswaldtwistle, rose by eight per cent to £52.6 million in 1998.

Despite the strength of the pound, the firm's carpet division managed to maintain its export sales and saw overall turnover increase by seven per cent to £18 million on the back of UK growth.

And Gaskell Textiles, which last week won the Lancashire Evening Telegraph Grimewatch business award, saw its Clayton Park base expand and sales jump by 14 per cent to £25 million. The automotive division won a major contract to supply material for Honda's new Civic and Accord ranges. Chief executive Gerard Cahill said the firm was planned to continue to invest in the group to bring new products on to the market in 1999.

"Notwithstanding the economic uncertainty at the current time the group will continue its exciting growth plans."

Shareholders will receive a dividend of 3.1p - more than double the 1997 figure.

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