Ron Hamilton's Provis contact lens company has posted its maiden profit, six years after the Scottish entrepreneur founded the business.
The news confirms the former owner of the Award contact lens business - which he sold in 1996 - has successfully improved the performance of the daysoftUV company.
Provis, which employs around 100 at its Blantyre base, recorded a pre-tax profit of £10,582 in the year to December 31 2004, compared to a deficit of £478,392 in the previous 12 months.
Sales rose to £3.25m, and the company, which generates 70 per cent of its turnover overseas, expanded the number of export countries to more than two dozen.
The business supplies about 30 million lenses a year to markets as diverse as Australia, Sri Lanka and Egypt, according to The Glasgow Herald.
Provis has been boosted in the past by investment from Scottish Equity Partners which provided £2m in 2003, and £1m the year before.
In 2002, the first full financial following the launch of daysoftUV, the company recorded sales of £1.38m, up from £173,383 the previous year.
Hamilton sold Award nine years ago to Bausch & Lomb, and netted £17.6m.
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