Glasgow-based sausage skin and food collagen products firm Devro said on Tuesday its trading for the period July 1 to October 31, 2020, remained “robust” despite the impact of Covid-19 on the food service industry.

Devro said it remains on track to deliver against its expectations for the year.

“Trading in the period remained robust, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the food service channel, with collagen volumes growing and group operating margins improving,” said Devro.

“As a result, our expectations for the full year remain unchanged.

“Emerging markets continued to grow well in the period.

“Most mature markets grew, but this was more than offset by declines in Continental Europe and UK & Ireland mainly reflecting a weaker food service channel.

“For the full year we still expect good growth in emerging markets to offset a decline in our mature markets leading to broadly flat collagen volumes, with an estimated 2% net negative impact from COVID-19.

“The Bellshill site closure and transfer of production lines to the Czech site remain on track.  

“On the 13 November 2020 group net debt was £123.8m.”

Devro CEO Rutger Helbing said: “We continued to make good underlying progress in the period.

“While we expect market conditions to remain challenging for the rest of the year we remain on track to deliver against our expectations.

“This is testament to the contribution of our people and I would again like to put on the record my gratitude for all their hard work.

“All sites remain open and we continue to provide good service to our customers and fulfil our role in the food supply chain.”