PRE-TAX profits at the Antrim based printing group W&G Baird have risen to a record level of more than £2 million sterling, up from £1.5 million last year. Turnover is up by more than 20 per cent to £23.3 million. The group's core activities are commercial printing, packaging, and book production. Last year it took over the Belfast publisher Blackstaff Press and the long established English company Eyre Spottiswoode, and now employs 485 people in Northern Ireland and England.

The chairman, Mr Roy Bailie, said the group's commitment to new technology, and its development of markets outside Northern Ireland, had been important factors in its success.