Natural flavours and fragrances company Omega Ingredients has reported increased annual sales and profits after a year which saw it expand in both the UK and the United States.

Omega doubled the size of its premises at Great Blakenham, near Ipswich, during 2013, creating eight new jobs in the process, and launched a sister company, Maverick Innovations, in the US.

These developments were aided by a 30,000 grant from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LDP) towards a total investment by the company of more than £120,000.

This has now been reflected in its results for the year, including a 20% increase in customer numbers, 16% growth in sales and a 20% rise in profits compared with 2012.

The year also saw the appointment of two new directors from among the company’s staff members, with Gerry Stopps becoming sales and marketing director and Melanie Evans appointed as technical and creative director.

Chief executive Steve Pearce, who co-founded the business with his wife, Elizabeth, in 2001, said: “We are delighted to have had a hugely successful year in 2013 as we successfully opened our US sister company Maverick Innovations, added eight new staff members, invested in new state of the art machinery, expanded our premises and introduced a large range of new products to a number of markets.

“These developments have allowed us to better service customers in the UK and around the world, with higher levels of customer service and technical expertise at hand to help our growing number of customers utilise our expanded range of ingredients.”

He continued: “By adding to the skills and expertise within the business through the introduction of new key staff including a senior flavourist, a sales manager, and a technical manager, we can keep growing our business at a controlled yet exciting rate.

“We’d like to thank all our customers, suppliers and partners for their continued support in 2013 as we look forward to achieving more great success with them in 2014.”

Omega Ingredients also successfully introduced a wide range of new products into the food, beverage and cosmetics manufacturing markets. These included various provenance specific natural ingredients such as high quality essential oils from specialist producers around the world.

New products for 2014 include the exciting new non-nutritive natural sweetener EPCevia Stevia, which will assist the UK food industry in achieving the aim of reducing the sugar content of many foods by 30%, and Spanish Orange Oil.

Last year also brought a number of awards for the Omega. Mr Pearce became one of the first people in the world to be awarded the Certified Food Scientist (CFS) accolade, from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), at a presentation in Chicago.

And he and his wife received an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Salford in recognition of the distinction they have attained in biochemistry.