Manchester-based McBride plc, the manufacturer of private label household and personal care products, said it was considering expressions of interest to acquire its aerosols business.

McBride, which employs about 5,000 around the world, said profit before tax rose 44.6% to in £18.8 million on revenue up 4.8% to £360.6 million in the six months to December 31, 2016.

McBride shares were unchanged around 171p, giving it a stock market value of around £311 million.

“The initial interest (in aerosols) has been narrowed down and the group is making progress towards concluding its next steps,” said McBride.

“The aerosols activities have annual revenues of approximately £60 million, operate from a manufacturing site in each of the UK and France and supply customers with a range of personal hygiene, aircare and homecare products.

“There can be no certainty that any transaction will result.”

McBride said that for the second half of its year, its current expectations were for constant currency underlying revenues to be slightly lower year-on-year.

“Uncertainty in both the size and timing of raw material inflation and changes to foreign exchange rates is to be expected in the second half of the year,” said the firm.

“We will work closely with customers to mitigate these but it is likely the second half will see some lag effect between higher input prices and margin recovery.

 “While trading conditions in the second half are expected to remain challenging, we believe our ongoing margin and cost initiatives position us well to mitigate these effects.

“As such, the board’s full year expectations remain unchanged.”

McBride CEO Rik De Vos said: “I am both encouraged and delighted by the group’s solid performance in this first half of our financial year, in spite of the tough trading environment.”