Losses at growing media supplier William Sinclair widened in the first half, but the company has at last seen a settlement of its compensation claim for ending operations at one of its sites.
Loss before taxation grew to £3.7m for the six months ended March 31 2014 from £1.88m a year earlier, while revenue grew to £21.8m from £20.4m. The company is, though, now able to draw a line under the long-running negotiations with Natural England over the amount of compensation it will get for ceasing to extract peat from Bolton Fell in Cumbria, a globally-important wildlife habitat.

Chief executive Peter Rush said: "We're delighted with the £21.25m agreement to settle our claim at Bolton Fell. After four years of negotiations this is a significant step forward, and our strong financial footing will enable us to accelerate the transition to become the UK's most advanced manufacturer of horticulture products.

"While there are further milestones to be met the largest investments have been committed and good progress has been made with the more challenging work. Improvements to product quality and efficiency benefits are already being created."