Pre-tax profits are up by £1m at Liverpool’s oldest trading business RS Clare which last year celebrated its 275th anniversary. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool’s oldest trading business RS Clare is reporting a rise in profits of £1m and a 15.8% surge in revenues to £30.9m.

In its accounts for the 12 months to December 31, 2023, just filed on Companies House, RS Clare says pre-tax profits came in at £6.7m – up from £5.7m in 2022. Dividends of £5m have been paid to its owner RS Clare Holdings.

Based in Stanhope Street in the Baltic Triangle, where it employs 82 people, RS Clare was founded by Richard Clare in 1748 at the start of the Industrial Revolution as a chemist, druggist and dry-salter.

Today the business is a specialist manufacturer of industrial lubricants. More than 70% of its sales are to overseas markets and it exports its products to around 50 countries. Its lubricants are used in oil and gas, rail, maritime, industrial and thermoplastics.

Lubricants were developed as a result of the first mineral oil being imported into the Mersey River in 1889. This was the year the Meadows family acquired the business and managing director David Meadows is the sixth generation of his family to run the firm.

In January 2023 the firm acquired Swiss based railway lubrication business, Igralub Holding. The deal included subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, and its share of a joint venture in North America.

In 2023 RS Clare said it was making its “biggest ever” investment in its history with the expansion of its grease plant, although it did not reveal the value of this investment.

Speaking in September 2023, business development manager Daniel Marsh said: “We are investing heavily in Liverpool. We have installed a new packing line that improves health and safety and makes things more efficient.

“This is the largest investment we have ever made in our 275-year history, installing large new grease vessels with high tech automation to significantly increase capacity.”

In the latest accounts David Meadows said that during the year sales activities and revenues were up in all its four key divisions. He added: “We prioritised innovation and product development to drive business growth.

“Newly-developed products have spurred growth in key strategic regions across our market sectors. This, along with collaborating with strategic partners, enabled us to expand our reach globally.”

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On the expansion project, he also said: “This project is fundamental to increasing production capacity and efficiencies which is viewed as essential in ensuring our capability to deliver against our strategic business objectives and support future growth.”

According to the accounts, directors’ remuneration, including salaries and pension payments, totalled £388,542 during the year with the highest paid director receiving just under £200,000.