One of Northern Ireland's biggest building materials manufacturers has seen its pre-tax profits slump from £6.9m to £1.2m.

Even though Co Antrim-based Brett Martin, is a global company with four sites in the UK and one in the Netherlands, it was also hit by a small fall in business group turnover, down from £112.4m in 2007 to £111.6m in 2008.

Trading since 1958, Brett Martin is a privately-owned family business which manufactures plastic products for construction, roofing, print and display. It is involved in a number of projects relating to the 2012 Olympics.

However, employment in the group, which is headed by Managing Director Laurence Martin, increased slightly from 802 people to an average of 812 in 2008.

Capital spending at £4.7m was down from £6.2m a year earlier but it was at a higher level than in other recent years and was significantly higher than the depreciation allowance on existing assets.

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Today's Belfast Telegraph report also sai that a dividend of £1.5m was paid to the shareholders - down from a payment of £2m a year earlier.

Brett Martin Ltd specialises in polycarbonate sheeting and rooflight manufacturing producing rooflights with GRP, PVC and Polycarbonate options, as well as semi-finished Foam PVC and flat sheet Polycarbonate and drainage and rainwater systems.

Brett Martin Building Products manufactures bespoke pipework and fittings for large-scale civil engineering operations, such as water treatment and wastewater plant applications.

The news is in spite of Brett Martin's evident expertise and its service delivery to the civil engineering sector with such work as that on the North Down network of Cloughy, Seahill and Ballywater as obvious examples of success.

The North Coast Waste Water Treatment Scheme, a project worth £15million saw Brett Martin's products used as part of the overall solution to address the issue of sewage into the sea faced by the resorts on the coast there.

The massive Belfast Sewer Project has also benefited from Brett Martin's technical background, onsite advice, fast production, delivery and unrivalled service.

The project has used Brett Martin sewer pipes and fittings, together with specially fabricated components, which are manufactured to meet specific project requirements arising from the challenges of on site variation.

(BMcC/GK)