CARR’S Group, the listed agriculture, food and engineering company, has lifted full-year profits by five per cent to £17.5 million.

The group, which operates the world’s most technologically advanced mill in Kirkcaldy, said it had delivered another year of record profits before tax in spite of the “challenging market backdrop across all three of our divisions.”

Profits in agriculture soared by 8.8 per cent to £10.4m, driven by a strong performance in the US feed block business, while operational efficiencies helped lift food profits before tax by 6.3 per cent to £2.4m. But the company cited “contract mix and market difficulties” as pre-tax profits in engineering dropped by 16.7 per cent to £3.1m.

Carr’s Group profits grew as turnover dropped by 4.1 per cent to £411.6m, which the company attributed to low commodity prices.

Chairman Chris Holmes said: “I am pleased that the group achieved another year of record profit before tax, despite a number of headwinds across all of our divisions. We have been able to achieve this due to the diversity of our business and the resilience of our business model, together with the hard work of our management team and all of our employees.

“While we expect these headwinds to continue in 2016, we are in a very strong position to handle those challenges and capitalise on any potential opportunities.”

Carr’s, which has around 160 staff in Scotland, proposed a final dividend of 1.85p, up 8.8 per cent on last year, taking the total dividend to the year for 3.7p. The 2014 dividend was restated at 3.4p following a share split in January.

Shares in Carr’s Group closed down 4.5p at 146.2p.