DARWEN smart meters firm Bglobal more than doubled its revenue last year, new figures show.

But the company, which employs 150 people at its headquarters in Commercial Road, made a pre-tax loss of £722,000 mainly due to its £12.8m acquisition of Utiligroup.

Tim Jackson Smith, group chief executive, said: “The markets we operate in are undergoing major change, with Government announcing its plans for the mass rollout of smart meters and beginning to challenge the dominance of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers by calling for more new entrants to help create a more competitive environment.

“All of these changes present significant opportunities for the group and the services and solutions we are able to offer mean we are well placed to take advantage of them.”

In Bglobal’s official preliminary results for the year ending March 2011 revenue increased 119 per cent to £28.99million.

Chairman Peter Ken-nedy said: “We have once again substantially grown our revenue while continuing to take a tight control of costs.

“We have now moved into underlying profitability, that is before costs of acquiring Utiligroup.

“Bglobal has now installed over 160,000 smart meters in the industrial and commercial sector and is the industry leader in the UK smart meter market.”

Mr Jackson-Smith said much of the year saw Bglobal work on large orders from British Gas and Npower.

The firm installed 66,056 meters representing a 63.8 per cent increase on the previous year.