Pets Choice – the East Lancashire manufacturer behind household brands including Webbox, Meatiful and TastyBone – has shown strong sales growth.

The latest accounts for the Blackburn-based company show a rise in sales in the 12 months up to December 31, 2017.

Turnover increased by 18 per cent on year-earlier figures, from £37.8m to £44.6m, with growth across all divisions.

Pre-tax profits were up 10 per cent from £1.8m to £1.99m.

In a statement, CEO Tony Raeburn said: “The strong performance demonstrates our strategy for the company is proving successful and the continued sales growth across our brands has helped to offset the major impact that Brexit has had on currency.

“We look forward to the continued development of the business during the year ahead.”

Pets Choice, which is headquartered in Blackburn, can trace its roots back to 1881 and also produces and distributes well-known brands such as Goodwyns, Davies, Oceanic and Vitakraft.

It acquired the Spike’s World brand in June 2017.

The statement added: "The company operates in a robust market, although a serious challenge to maintaining margins is anticipated from global commodity input price instability and the strength of the pound sterling as highlighted by the fall in the gross profit margin this year.

"The maturity of the UK market and challenging routes to market will test management's ability to maintain continued growth.

"However, we believe the right team is in place to achieve this while offering quality and value to our customers."

Pets Choice confirmed improvements to its existing production facilities are underway “in order to meet the expansion strategy”.