Door and window manufacturer to target acquisitions in existing or new markets.

Door and window manufacturer Heywood Williams will today lay out plans to grow through acquisitions while reducing costs.

Chairman Roger Boyes, speaking at the firm's annual general meeting today, will tell shareholders that the group, based in Yorkshire, will focus its efforts on four areas in the coming year.

These are: acquisitions in existing or new markets; sales growth through new product launches; reducing costs through outsourcing some manufacturing to low-cost economies; and expanding the group's "late-stage" manufacturing operations.

Boyes will add that the firm's hardware division in the UK and Europe has been subdued in the first quarter of 2006, but that sales growth is expected in Europe due to the introduction of new timber and timber/aluminium windows.

In 2005, the firm posted pre-tax profit up 25.3% to £9.4 million, compared with £7.5 million in 2004.