DESPITE contemporary environmental concerns, the general public still demands cheap food at affordable prices, a policy heavily reliant on the widespread use of manufactured fertilisers. While organic food production as yet remains an expensive luxury for the fortunate minority, there has been a decline in demand for bulk agri Tom Jago cultural fertilisers.

This has created tighter pricing, tough competition for market share and a commercial headache for companies like Irish Fertilizer Industries, which claims to supply 40 per cent of fertilisers sold on the Irish market.

Curiously, the company name is spelt with an Americanised "z", which may explain the zip in this week's set of annual results in defiance of such operational difficulties. Although pre tax profits of £18.7 million were at a virtual standstill, the profit was earned on turnover down £4 million to £161.5 million. Additionally, the group had to contend with restructuring costs of £1.7 million. Without this added cost burden, profits would have exceeded £20 million, indicating, dare one say it, "organic" growth of around 11 percent.

IFI's managing director, Tom Jago, attributes the drop in sales to an overall 5 per cent decline in the agricultural fertiliser market last year. However, recovery signs are emerging this year, with some improvement in both sales and prices. The balance sheet is healthy. Indebtedness, which ten years ago stood at £32 million, has now been reduced to a manageable £200,000. The prospect of a share listing sometime in the future is being floated as being beneficial for the group's development prospects.