ELECTRICAL goods maker Electrolux, which axed more than 500 jobs in County Durham last year with the closure of its cooker factory, yesterday reported a 93 per cent rise in third-quarter profits after cost cuts and increased prices helped it offset weak market demand.

The maker of refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cookers said net profits were 1.6bn kronor (£144.6m), up from 847m kronor in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues increased by five per cent to 27.6bn kronor (£2.49bn), boosted by higher prices and favourable currency exchange rates. In comparable currencies, revenue fell by three per cent.

The company axed 3,000 jobs within its operations at the end of last year, including more than 500 posts through the closure of a cooker factory in Spennymoor, saying only months later that it would pull out of the town completely by closing its warehouse and distribution centre.

Electrolux said at the time of its closure announcement, in late 2007, the company had been hit in recent years by “intense global competition and falling prices,” and was looking to relocate work elsewhere in Europe where manufacturing costs are cheaper.

Only last week, Electrolux announced plans to close another plant, this time in Spain, costing 450 jobs, as the company looks to shift production to lower-cost countries.

However, in December last year, after the vast majority of the workers at the Spennymoor factory were made redundant, thanks to the support made available in the aftermath of the closure announcement, it was revealed that 88 per cent of workers who left in February and at the end of July are now considered “settled”, either in work, retraining or having retired.

Electrolux has a total workforce of more than 50,000 people, with just under 500 staff in the UK, including at its main UK office in Luton, Bedfordshire and at Milton Keynes, Birmingham, and a base in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Chief executive Hans Straberg said Electrolux raised prices on its products despite a competitive market.

However, he warned that demand remained depressed.

“Market development continues to be weak, as expected.

Even though we see things stabilising in North America, the European market has not yet hit bottom,” he said.