A SOUTH Lakeland paper making company is planning to invest £1 million in flood resilience measures.

James Cropper will be making the investment to the Burneside site following a healthy financial year.

The company reported this week that it had seen a 61 per cent growth in operating profit before interest, from £3.9m last year to £6.3m as of April this year.

In a letter to shareholders, chairman Mark Cropper said that he was 'delighted to report another year of strong progress'.

"The group has performed strongly in 2015/16, a testament to the strategies introduced and deployed in the last few years," he said.

"Although we will be catching up with a number of deferred repair projects in 2016/17, growth will continue to be delivered with further capital investments across all divisions in support of focused market developments and group wide efficiency improvements.

"These give me confidence that the group will continue to advance for some years to come."

Mr Copper also commended his employees, in particular how they responded to the December floods and the impact that Storm Desmond had on the Burneside site.

"Hardly a single employee did not contribute to the recovery in some way, and many gave up their Christmas break to get us back on our feet," he said.

"The turnaround was impressive, although the event was not without consequences. Around £0.7m of site wide repair projects were postponed as maintenance teams focused on recovery; these will be completed in the 2016/17 financial year.

"To mitigate future flood risks, the board has approved £1 million of capital investments in 2016/17 to build flood resilience at the Burneside site."

The report also revealed that the group revenue for the financial year was £87.9m, up six per cent on the previous year.