THE parent company of Express Gifts has announced record pre-tax profits of £41.2 million after sales broke through the £400 million barrier for the first time.

Express Gifts is the home shopping division of Yorkshire-based Findel plc and is by far its most profitable operation, contributing around 65 per cent of its revenues.

It is one of East Lancashire's biggest employers, with 500 people working at its massive warehouse at Church, a further 500 at a state-of-the-art call centre in Clayton-le-Moors and around 500 at its warehouse in Nelson.

Findel chairman Keith Chapman said the group had returned an excellent set of results for the year.

He said: "The continued success of our Home Shopping division, together with early indications of an improvement in the Education market, underpin the Board's confidence for the future.

"Group sales for the first six full weeks of the new financial year are 22 per cent higher than last year, with all three divisions contributing to this increase."

Express Gifts is now one of the UK's leading mail order companies selling a wide range of greeting cards, gifts, home and garden items through its Studio and Ace catalogues. More than three million major catalogues are distributed each year by the company.

It operates a large call centre at Clayton-le-Moors, dealing with customer ordering and accounts. Orders are despatched to customers from the company's fully automated state-of-the-art warehousing facility nearby at Accrington.

Operating the largest product personalisation facility in Europe, customers can order products individualised to their own specifications.

The in-house design team is able to personalise most items including glassware, paper, wood, acrylics and all types of clothing.

In addition to telephone support, the customer care centre at Clayton-le-Moors manages postal enquiries, handling 1.25 million orders and 1.5 million payments every year.