RUSSELL HOTTEN Rolls-Royce, the aero-engine and industrial power group, reported a sharp rise in profits yesterday as the company forecast that the airline industry was at last picking up after five years of recession. After reporting a 74 per cent jump in pre-tax profits to pounds 175m for last year, chairman Sir Ralph Robins said that the company was seeing growth in its important markets and had captured a greater share of the commercial engine market.There has been speculation that R-R was selling its big Trent engine at below cost in order to win lucrative spares sales, but Sir Ralph denied this.R-R said it was closing the gap on rival US engine-makers General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Cookson's shares, which have tripled in value over the past four years, closed 7p lower at 318p as the market paused for breath after the past year's strong outperformance.The biggest surprise to analysts was a big swing in Cookson's cash flow, which saw it generate pounds 50m compared with last year's pounds 17m absorption. That put Cookson on track to meet its target of generating pounds 500m over the next four years from debt and internal cash flow for investment in its four main businesses.Mr Oster said the key to Cookson's success over the past few years was a constant drive to create new products. He estimated that a quarter of the company's profits in five years' time would come from products not yet in existence.Electronics, which makes circuit boards and is one of Cookson's fastest- growing markets, saw profits rise 52 per cent to pounds 80m as demand from computer, mobile phone and car manufactuers remained high.

The company estimates that the electronic content of cars will double over the next 10 years, maintaining the division's momentum.In ceramics, the refractories business continued to grow faster than the steel industry it mainly serves by taking market share.The ceramics supplies business, a joint venture with Johnson Matthey, also made good progress in its first year of trading.Thanks to the group's cash generation and a pounds 193m rights issue a year ago at 175p the balance sheet remained strong, with gearing at the year end down to 6 per cent from 36 per cent 12 months earlier.. Mr Oster said a 15 per cent return on sales was achievable to put Cookson on a par with diversified rivals such as BTR, TI and Williams.Last year's improved result means profits have soared from under pounds 20m in 1991, when the return on sales was under 7 per cent.That rise meant the company was able to pay a final dividend 18 per cent higher at 4.5p to give a full-year payout 14 per cent better at 8p. TOM STEVENSON City Editor The dramatic recovery at the circuit board to ceramics group Cookson continued in 1995 as strong sales growth and margin improvement sent profits and cash flow soaring.Richard Oster, chief executive, said: "Global expansion, a clear focus on new product development and customer service have enabled the group to grow its major businesses despite the increasingly competitive environment."Pre-tax profits jumped 50 per cent to pounds 181m (pounds 121m) after a 15 per cent rise in sales to pounds 1.8bn was compounded by a widening in operating margin from 9 per cent to 11.1 per cent. On Monday the Corporation urged the British Domesticated Ostrich Association to tighten up its code of ethics to prevent such abuses in future "We felt it was time to sort out the industry. A lot of farms don't understand what you can and can't do in advertising," said Robin Higgens of the Corporation Quite right The industry can't keep its head in the sand....

Pinstripe had claimed in an ad for investment in ostrich farming that "Demand will exceed supply for the next 7-10 years." The ASA found that pinstripe could not substantiate the claim.Step forward the Ostrich Farming Corporation, Europe's biggest breeder with 2,000 birds in Belgium. The booming world of ostrich breeding was thrown into disarray this week, however, when the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against the Pinstripe Farming Company, Sandbach, Cheshire. Russell Harvey, head of Lasmo North Sea, won "Shot of the year" and Graham Hearn, chairman of Enterprise Oil, was voted "host of the year".Ostrich meat Yum yum Many now view it as preferable to BSE-ridden beef. Colin Moynihan, the former sports and energy minister, was voted "most boring guest". "Dresser of the year" was John Kennedy, chief executive of Dresser Industries, which builds oil rigs. Britain's oil moguls like shooting together since they all have stakes in each other's oil rigs and Scottish grouse moors are conveniently close to the North Sea oil fields.The first ever Annual Shooters' Supper was attended by 34 moguls, and amid the talk of buckshot they made a number of awards.

"Once people get their sticky hands on the money they tend not to want to hand it back."The world of shooting collided with that of oil at the Turf Club in London's Carlton House Terrace last night. Currently Mr Hardern is pursuing a scheme to get five sympathisers on to the board of Nationwide Building Society, which remains resolutely mutual.Any charity scheme would have to receive the money automatically on conversion, Mr Hardern stressed. Mr Hardern wrote to the Princess's press representative Jane Atkinson last weekend about the scheme, which he reckons could raise around pounds 1.6bn for good causes.He has already formed a lobby group, Members of Conversion, which is urging all remaining societies to convert and shower their members with one-off payments. Isabella had completed her 1,112-page book in the 1860s aged just 25, and died just four years later, which certainly teaches a lesson about Getting On With It.Princess Diana is to head a charity funded by people donating 10 per cent of their windfalls from building society conversions, if freelance butler Michael Hardern has his way. The London Business School is championing the 19th century authoress, who wrote arguably the most influential cookbook cum housekeeping guide ever, as a sage for today.Robin Wensley, professor of strategic management and marketing at Warwick Business School, wrote in the spring edition of the LBS Strategy Review that Isabella Beeton's book throws light "on two modern management debates; the relationship between strategic and operations management; and order/bureacracy as against adaptability/chaos."And there I was thinking it was all about getting up early and keeping the servants in order.