Growing concern for responsible waste management helped a Bradford manufacturing company post a huge 103 per cent increase in turnover today.

Canal Road-based PM Group Plc saw turnover grow from £3.5 million to £7.2 million for the year ending December 31 with pre-tax profits also soaring 32 per cent to £425,000.

The business, which manufactures weighing systems for measuring loads on trucks, has grown on the back of a rise in orders for use on refuse wagons.

And chief executive Geoff Mountain revealed the firm has also been boosted by news that the Irish Government is to introduce a pay-by-weight system for households across the country.

PM manufactures the chips that are used in wheeled bins to measure how much waste is being sent for landfill and how much is sent for recycling. Householders are then charged accordingly to encourage them to recycle more of their waste.

"We are in a very strong position to take advantage," said Mr Mountain today. "Several big councils are already operating our equipment but for the Government to adopt our systems nationwide would be massive. The whole of Ireland will have to be using this system within a year.

"It is very encouraging," he added. "We genuinely believe that there is an increasingly strong possibility that it will also be adopted by the UK Government. That would be colossal. We are almost taking about the creation of a fifth utility."

He said PM, which has developed cutting-edge technology for use in the industry, would "not become complacent" and continue to invest in research and development. "Sustaining 100 per cent growth is new to us, but it is not something that daunts us," he said.

"We will be tooling up to accommodate for this. It is fantastic for Bradford and fantastic for the workforce who have really put their backs into this for a year."

Company chairman Ken Jackson said the firm had a "strong order book and a high level of outstanding quotations". But he warned that the increasing size of the contracts had made it more difficult to predict and control revenues.

The company, which was listed on AIM in May 2002, is to pay an interim dividend of 1p per share for the first time.