Barlo, the radiators and plastics group, expects turnover in the current year to grow to £200 million, the group managing director, Mr Tony Mullins said yesterday.

Last year, the group had operating profits of £9.7 million on turnover of £138.5 million. Mr Mullins said the group was increasing both turnover and profit margins.

Following the acquisition last November for £6.4 million of acrylic and polycarbonate sheet plants at Mainz in Germany and Barcelona in Spain, turnover in plastics this year is expected to grow to £120 million. The acquisition increased turnover by £50 million and the group's plastics divisions has introduced a programme of integrating its European production and sales network. The programme includes the establishment of a division-wide computer information network, due to be completed by the end of this year.

Mr Mullins said it would take three years before the full benefit of the division's European sales network kicked in. However, he said that the company was already a serious player in the European consolidating plastics industry.

The new plants were acquired from BASF. Mr Mullins said BASF had invested more than £27 million in the plants since the early 1990s, but failed to make the operations profitable. However, Barlo, which has reduced the workforce by 50 people to 180 in the German plant, has already turned the operations around. Mr Mullins said further acquisitions were likely in the next three years.

"We believe we should be an industry where we can be European players. The two radiator plants we have in Ireland are profitable because they are part of a European network."

He said that the euro would be an enormous help to the group's operations.