Kettles-to-fryers group Kenwood Appliances says its major restructuring programme of the last three years is beginning to reap benefits.

The company has been transforming itself from a UK manufacturer into a global brand-led business, moving production overseas and launching new products.

It aims to finish the restructuring in December and expects profits to improve by £4 million a year following the shake-up.

The firm said pre-tax profits, stripping out costs of the restructuring, had leaped from £100,000 to £2.9 million for the year to March 31, fuelled by a particularly strong performance in the UK in the second half-year.

Taking into account exceptional charges, the company's bottom line pre-tax loss came in at £1.1 million - down from £9.8 million last time.

Turnover was £145.4 million, against £154.1 million last time.

Chief executive Colin Gordon said: "The benefits from the programme to transform Kenwood from a vertically-integrated manufacturing company to an agile brand-led business are now beginning to show through."

During the year the group launched 67 new products, the most successful being its Kenwood fryers and food processors.

New products generated 20 per cent of sales and fuelled sales in its core markets including the UK, which saw sales jump 13 per cent.

Customers in the UK were particularly keen to snap up Kenwood's deep fryers, kettles and food processors. Last Christmas, one in every two food processors sold in the UK was Kenwood-branded.

But the restructuring programme has taken its toll on UK jobs as Kenwood has moved almost half its product sourcing to China. At the end of March, Kenwood had 361 UK staff - a drop from 691 at the same time the previous year.