The Ipswich-headquartered company that once made munitions during World War Two has boosted its turnover from £101.2m to £109.2m.
But pre-tax profits for 2017 were £3.5m, down from £14.4m.
Accounts for the UK arm of industrial products provider Crane for the year ending 31 December 2017 revealed that gross profit margin fell to 29.5 per cent, from 34.4 per cent.
The company said profits have been impacted by a rise in the price of materials, due to the impact of foreign exchange on non-sterling purchases.
The directors are “continuing to monitor” the outcome of Brexit, but do not anticipate any adverse implications that will materially impact the business.
In the UK, the company started life in 1906 as a coppersmith in London. The US company Crane Co, which was founded in 1855 bought its assets in 1919 and in the 1920s, the engineering firm moved to the site that is currently Crane Boulevard, at Futura Park, Nacton. Crane contributed substantially to the war effort, but its heyday was the 1950s, when the workforce peaked at around 3,500 employees.
Crane moved away in 2008, but still retains its rane Buildings Services & Utilities (Crane BS&U) headquarters in Ipswich at nearby Ransomes Europark on West Road, and has some 600 employees based in UK locations in Ipswich, Hitchin and Northampton as well as overseas in the UAE and China.
The company is now part of the Fluid Handling Division of Crane Co, a multinational North American company.
Operating expenses also climbed for Crane Limited by 11.3 per cent due to a foreign exchange loss on the revaluation of intercompany borrowing.
A statement accompanying the results said Crane’s directors are “satisfied” with the performance and are “optimistic about the long-term prospects of the company.”
“Despite a challenging economic climate, the directors believe the company is well-positioned in its key end markets to deliver continued growth in 2018,” it added.
Crane BS&U design and manufacture a range of engineered flow control products and solutions for the HVAC and Utility sectors.
Crane BS&U comprises a portfolio of leading brands. For building services, their brands include Crane Fluid Systems, Hattersley, NABIC, IAT, Brownall, Rhodes and Wade which between them manufacture a range of valves, sight flow equipment and compression fittings.
For the water sector, Viking Johnson manufactures a range of pipe connectors, couplings, adaptors and repair products for flow control, and for the gas sector, WASK & Sperryn produce an array of equipment.
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