Shares of Glasgow-based sausage skin and food collagen products firm Devro rose about 5% on Tuesday after it published results for the year to December 31, 2020, showing that it swung to a pretax profit of £29.4 million from loss of £21.8 million in 2019.

Revenue slipped to £247.6 million from £250 million. Total dividend will be 9p per share, unchanged.

Devro said its emerging markets business was up 13%, driven by Latin America, Russia and South East Asia, while mature markets were down 5%.

It said growth of 9% in North America was offset “by COVID-19 related decline in food services sector and distributor destocking in Europe.”

Devro CEO Rutger Helbing said: “I am proud that in a year where we had to deal with the impact of COVID-19 we continued to make good progress with both our trading performance and strategic priorities.

“This progress in such challenging circumstances highlights the considerable efforts of the whole Devro team and I would like to put on record my gratitude for this; it’s been a huge effort. 

“The progress we made in all areas of our 3Cs strategy in 2020 provides a strong foundation for further strategic and trading performance improvements in 2021.

“We also expect another year of good free cash generation.

“Encouragingly, the year has started positively, although caution remains as many of the COVID-19 related challenges experienced in 2020 are still evident.

“Despite this we expect to make further progress in 2021 driven by our sales pipeline actions, solid underlying demand and the ongoing benefits of operational improvements.

“Devro is well positioned for the future.”