Consumer self-care company Venture Life reported its first profit on Thursday morning, after a strong year of organic growth and international expansion.

The group posted a maiden pre-tax profit of £0.1 million for the 2017 year, up from a loss of £1.1 million the year before. Revenues rose 12 percent to £16.1 million, driven by an expanded product range and the strong performance of its Ultra DEX line in the UK.

Jerry Randall, chief executive officer of Venture Life, said: “Venture Life has delivered another year of good organic revenue growth across its business, and achieved another of its objectives by delivering a profit before tax for the first time. This coupled with a cash positive H2 2017, means we expect to be sustainably profitable going forward.

“Having invested in and established excellent operating leverage within our business, these growing revenues have translated into increasing profitability, with the majority of incremental gross margin falling through to the bottom line.

“This again demonstrates the opportunity in our business to grow the bottom line at a faster rate than the top line, and with the recent reorganisation of our plant in Italy, we have increased our capacity such that we can now accommodate twice the volumes of 2017.

“Our strategy continues to be a focus on revenue growth, through both organic growth of our existing portfolio and through acquisition. 2018 has started well with our order book ahead of the same point in 2017, and I look forward to another good year of growth for the group.”

Venture Life (LON:VLG) shares are currently trading up 14 percent at 49.02 (0921GMT).