THE Connacht Court group, Ireland's largest textile rental service company, increased turnover to £23 million last year, and raised profits to £611,000. The Galway based firm said its expansion plan would see investment of £5 million and add 80 jobs to its current workforce of 500.

The privately owned company's latest results, for the year ending October 31st 1996, saw turnover edge upwards to £23.18 million, from £21.17 million for 1995.

Mr Tom Joyce, the group's managing director, said the company had doubled in size over the past five years.

Profits after tax climbed to £611,398 from £548,403, with observers pointing to low margins in the sector as the reason for the gulf between this figure and turnover. Mr Joyce said the level of profits also reflected the absorption of significant growth and expansion within the company.

The firm said its expansion plan would be completed by the end of this year. The programme is being part financed by ACT, which recently invested £2.6 million.

In 1992, AIB Capital Markets, through its' venture capital subsidiary at the time, invested some £2 million in the group. This shareholding is currently under the management of ACT, and along with ACT's own direct investment, is worth about 30 per cent of the company.

"The recent investment by ACT was at a considerable premium to the 1992 valuation," the company said yesterday.

The Goodbody family remains the controlling shareholder in the firm, which is chaired by Mr Oliver Goodbody. Two representatives of ACT - Mr Niall Carroll and Mr Walter Hobbs - are listed as non executive directors.

The company began in 1920, when the Goodbody family bought a small laundry in Galway, providing a home delivery service with the help of a horse and cart. When traditional laundries began to fail in the 1970s, the company changed its emphasis to supplying linen for hospitals and the corporate sector.