Despite the global economic recession causing commodity prices to fall and markets to contract, John Lawrie Group, the Scottish metal reprocessor, steel trading and environmental services company, recorded a healthy profit in 2009.

In its latest accounts posted with Companies House, the Aberdeen-based firm reported a pre-tax profit of £2.2m on turnover of £66m for the year ended 31 December 2009.

Charlie Parker, group financial director, said: “Given the market conditions that we faced during 2009, we are relatively satisfied with these results.

Charlie Parker

“We identified last year that 2009 was going to be a tough year, but our business model is designed to work in all market conditions.

“As to the outlook, 2010 has seen an increase in activity levels for our oil & gas related business. In particular, we have grown our support function for decommissioning and dismantling projects from our facilities in Aberdeen, Invergordon and Montrose.”

From its headquarters in Aberdeen, John Lawrie Group employs around 100 people. The business, which was established over 70 years ago, has operations and stockholdings throughout the UK, the USA, Scandinavia, Europe, China and the Middle East.