Weir cheers with pumped up profits

The 137 year-old Glasgow-based firm headed by chief executive Mark Selway (pictured) said it had continued to perform well in the final quarter of the year, growing input, revenue and profit. The Group's results benefited from the effects of a positive foreign currency translation, most notably from the strengthening of the US dollar against sterling. Looking ahead, the group told shareholders that as a result of its good performance in the year and the foreign currency translation benefits, it expects the 2008 full year profit outlook to improve from its previously predicted £170 million to around £174 million. The group was founded as G and J Weir in 1872 by brothers George and James Weir, descendants of Robert Burns, and has its roots in the great Victorian era of industrial innovation when it produced pumping equipment for the Clyde shipyards.