Pre-tax profit has passed the £10m mark at Deeside-headquartered automotive manufacturer Henrob, despite a dip in overall sales, in the year following its takeover by a Swedish group.

The company, founded in 1985, makes self-piercing rivets which allows for two or more materials to be joined together where welding is difficult. It employs about 400 staff.

Its products are used by the automotive industry in Europe and the US, and it also has operations in the US.

Henrob was acquired by Stockholm-headquartered Atlas Copco in September 2014, along with its subsidiaries.

According to accounts for Henrob Ltd, pre-tax profit was £10.2m in the year ending 31 December 2015, up from £4.3m in 2014.

Turnover was £44.9m, compared to £52.3m the year before. The dip in sales was put down to a decrease in new car production lines during the period.

The operating pro?t level remained stable and the company achieved 11.3 per cent operating pro?t as a percentage of sales, compared to 8.8 per cent in 2014.

The company was also said to have made substantial levels of capital expenditure in 2015 to achieve the expected future level of demand in consumable products.

Henrob added that it had made a reduction in the workforce in equipment assembly to suit demand but headcount had increased overall due to rivet business development.

In their report accompanying the results, the directors said that profit had been "positively in?uenced" by the £5.3m sale of shares in the business to its parent in November 2015 to "align with Atlas Copco legal group structure".

They added that they expected the general level of activity to decrease in the current financial year as a result of "delays in investment decisions regarding new production facilities by car manufacturers".