Glasgow-based sausage skin and collagen products firm Devro said its revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018, slipped to £120.2m from £125.2m in the first half of last year but profit before tax rose to £10.9 million from £10 million.

“The lower revenue for edible collagen casings is due to headwinds from exchange rates (-3.1%) as sterling strengthened against all key currencies with the exception of the euro and Czech koruna,” said Devro.

Devro CEO Rutger Helbing said: “We are making good progress in a range of markets contributing towards our Devro 100 objectives of growing profitable revenue and market share, whilst reducing operating unit costs.

“In addition, we have significantly improved the North American plant performance, and increased the average selling price in China by 19% through migrating the customer mix towards those that value our differentiated products.

“Product development of the new Fine Ultra range remains a key focus and the product platform will enter commercial launch during H2 following completion of refinements to reflect local market preferences.

“The new product platform is an important building block of our growth ambitions, and will begin to be seen in H2 2018 and into 2019.

 “We are focused on continuing to deliver Devro 100 and the board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged.”