By Matthew Legg

Last updated at 15:52, Friday, 25 May 2012

Carlisle's Pirelli tyre plant has played a major role in a recession-busting 46 per cent rise in profits for its owner.

The Italian-owned firm made £169m in the three months to the end of March, compared with £115m in the same period last year.

The company’s focus on ‘premium products’, like the high-end tyres produced in Carlisle, has been cited by bosses as the central factor in the improved performance.

It marks a dramatic turnaround at the Dalston Road plant whose future was in doubt in the aftermath of the credit crunch in 2008. Sixty staff were laid off that summer with 20 going in November that year and a further 20 in March 2009.

A series of temporary shutdowns were also enforced as the company struggled with a collapse in global demand for tyres.

But the plant has since recovered impressively since and a renewed focus by the company on the premium sector has furthered strengthened its hand.

Bosses announced last November that they wanted the business to be the world’s biggest producer by 2015, with Carlisle playing a key role. And the factory was given a further boost when the Government announced last year that the site would get a multi-million grant through the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) to develop low carbon tyres, further enhancing the factory’s viability.

In a trading statement, the firm said total revenues generated from premium tyres grew 29.2 per cent £472m in the first three months of the year.

But, despite the impressive start to 2012, bosses have warned they expect “general slowdown” in the global tyre market.

First published at 14:08, Friday, 25 May 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk