A Gloucester manufacturer saw its sales soar by 77% last year.

Advanced Innergy Holdings, which trades as AIS, is headquartered in Gloucester but employs 650 people at 13 locations globally.

AIS is a global leader in the engineering, manufacture and application of insulation and passive fire protection systems, as well as buoyancy and SURF (subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines) products.

The directors expressed pleasure with its results for the year ended September 30, 2023. Despite the ongoing indirect impacts of the Ukraine conflict, the group saw significant improvement compared with 2022.

The group achieved sales growth of 77% to £111.3m for the year (2022: £63m).

The acquisition of CRP Subsea in November 2022 added significant revenue of £57.1m to the group and has considerably widened the group's product portfolio and accelerated the drive into the renewable energy sector.

Despite wider economic challenges, the directors said the outlook for 2024 and beyond was increasingly positive with a considerable number of projects being approved or actively moving forward.

The forward order book increased substantially in 2023 to £87.9m (2022: £27.6m), boosted by the acquired orders in hand from CRP Subsea, which reflected strong order growth in the group's key markets.

The group said it was confident of further growth throughout 2024 and beyond as its energy transition programme gathers pace.

The group generated an adjusted EBITDA of £14.3m (2022: £9.6m) and an operating profit of £0.4m (2022: £4.8m).