THE Co Armagh newspaper company Morton's has announced pre-tax profits of £377,000 sterling for the seven months to the end of October 1995, nearly 20 per cent up on the previous year. The Craigavon firm, which last month signed a major printing deal with the Daily Mirror group, showed an operating profit of over £450,000 a rise of 27 per cent. The accounting period was reduced to seven months following the company's acquisition by Scottish Radio Holdings last November.

Morton's said severance payments of nearly £20,000 and interest charges of nearly £90,000 had been largely offset by a profit of £77,000 on the sale of assets, and £7,000 from deposit interest and profit made on foreign exchange transactions.

Last month, the Daily Mirror group reached a new agreement with Morton's to secure its continued production on the company's new presses on the Carn Industrial Estate in Craigavon. The Daily Mirror and its sister paper, the Sunday Mirror first started printing in Northern Ireland 30 years ago.