Hygiene products company Tristel told investors today that recent strong trading had continued, putting it on track to report increased half-year profits.

And, speaking at the company’s annual general meeting, Tristel chief executive Paul Swinney said management was also confident that results for the full year would come in ahead of current market expectations.

“I am very pleased to report that the strong trading highlighted at the time of our preliminary results has continued,” Mr Swinney told the meeting, held on the Lynx Business Park at Snailwell, near Newmarket, where the company is based.

“In relation to the six months ending December 31. 2013, unaudited revenues are expected to be in excess of £6million, which is 36% ahead of the same period last year.

“We expect unaudited pre-tax profit to be no less than £0.6 million for the period, compared to adjusted pre-tax profit of £0.5million for the full year ended June 30, 2013 and adjusted pre-tax loss of £0.6m for the same period last year.

“As a result we are confident that our full year results for the year ending 30 June 2014 will be ahead of current market expectations.”

Tristel produces a range of disinfectant and contamination control products for use in the hospital, pharmaceutical, personal care and animal health sectors.

Mr Swinney said recent grwoth had been achieved across all areas of the business, both within the UK and overseas.

“We have seen a significant increase in sales of the Tristel Wipes System globally, the Crystel clean room product range has shown encouraging performance and is now contributing to group profit, and we are seeing the impact of our restructured cost base,” he added. “We believe that the pattern of growth will continue in the second half.”

Tristel said that a further update on trading for the six months to December 31 would be issued before the end of January.

Broker FinnCap said today: “The company expects the full year to be ahead of our current forecasts of revenues of £11.4m and pre-tax profits of £0.9m. We will review our forecasts at the time of the January trading update. We have a 38p price target, which we will also have to revise upwards.”