Skipton Building Society is one of the most profitable in the country, its chief executive said this week.

John Goodfellow praised the group's outstanding performance when commenting on its annual report.

It showed the Skipton and its 16 subsidiaries made a pre-tax profit of £91.2 million - up 10.9 per cent. The society itself recorded a pre-tax profit increase of 18.7 per cent at £55.8 million.

The Skipton Group employs 700 people at its headquarters in the town and 8,000 nationally.

Mr Goodfellow said: "As the figures for the Skipton Group show, we are once again the most profitable building society in the UK today.

"By increasing the number of members the society has, we have seen mortgage balances ending the year up 18 per cent and investment account balances up 12 per cent.

"Once again, I'm proud to say Skipton has performed beyond market expectations and shown itself to be the epitome of a modern mutual."

Mr Goodfellow said the mortgage market continued to be competitive, but despite this, loans and advances to customers increased by 18 per cent to £7 billion. This, he said, demonstrated the society's success in attracting new members.

Indeed, total mortgages issued via organisations in the Skipton Group hit a record high, at more than £9 billion, with the society itself receiving 26,000 mortgage applications during the year.

One of the Skipton's 16 companies which has done particularly well is Homeloan Management which, with assets under management in excess of £33 billion, is the UK's most successful mortgage servicing provider.

Mr Goodfellow added: "'What has been achieved in the last 12 months is a further endorsement of our strategy.

"Our challenge for 2006 will be to continue to provide outstanding rates for savers and borrowers at a time when the Bank of England's base rate is forecast to remain low.

"Skipton offers outstanding service - a fact recognised by our winning the Financial Adviser 5-Star Service Award for the sixth year in a row."

He added: "With regard to the future growth of the group, we will retain our focus on the core business of mortgages and savings, but will seek to invest further in related businesses where the opportunities are available and justified. In this way, Skipton will continue to act as a modern mutual."