A REFINERY’S renaissance has pushed an operator’s sales and profits higher.

CropEnergies says work at the Ensus plant has given its bottom line a boost and allowed bosses to increase full-year financial predictions.

According to latest results, released today (Monday, June 19), the impact of Ensus, based at Wilton, near Redcar, helped drive revenues up 38 per cent in the first quarter to £202m (€231m).

The number was significantly up on the £147m (€168m) recorded a year ago.

Officials also revealed operating profit was 21 per cent better off at £21m (€23.5m).

The positive results come after CropEnergies embarked on a turnaround plan for Ensus, which included pausing work for a number of months to improve the factory’s reliability after falling prices and oil’s sluggish value forced the firm to cut jobs.

However, the site, which employs in the region of 100 people, has since undergone a revitalisation and is operating at full capacity alongside CropEnergies’ other European bases.

Joachim Lutz, chief executive, said: “The main reason for the improved operating profit was the high utilisation of all production facilities.

“In the first quarter of the previous year, the plant in Wilton was still temporarily shut down.

“Also, the realised ethanol prices were above the originally expected forward prices for the first quarter.”

The progress means bosses now expect full-year group revenues to reach as high as £788m (€900m), compared to a previous best case scenario forecast of £766m (€875m).

They added operating profit could now come in as high as £79m (€90m), which would outstrip earlier top-end estimates of £70m (€80m).

Last month, Crop Energies revealed Ensus had been pivotal in the business chalking up record earnings.

Bosses said the plant helped drive annual operating profit in its last financial year to £84m, which represented the highest point since the company’s foundation in 2006.

Germany’s CropEnergies took on the Ensus Limited business as a UK subsidiary in 2013, with its Wilton plant using wheat to create bioethanol that is added to petrol.

Remaining protein and grain is used to make animal feed and carbon dioxide for the soft drinks and food market.

However, Ensus has endured a chequered past, with falling prices and oil’s plummeting value compounding low demand, poor harvests, rising energy costs and even a bad smell, which all hindered production following its start at the beginning of the decade.