In Britain, the banger makes an appearance at everything from summer barbecues to children's birthday parties. In Chile, vast quantities of longaniza are eaten during its September 18 independence day celebrations. And in Germany, nearly every town will boast its own variety of wurst.

Sausages are present in one form or another in the diet of virtually every country around the world.

Whether they are Chinese sausages spiked with numbing white pepper or the blood and rice-stuffed variety preferred by Hungarians, they all need something to hold them together.

This is where Lanarkshire firm Devro comes in, as it is a leading producer of the collagen skins that encase many modern sausages.

Given Devro's trade, it is always tempting to roll out terms like "sizzling" or "banger" when describing the firm's performance.

The charms of the company lie more in the fact that it is a geographically diversified, solid performer. Its market has held up better than other consumer-focused areas and it seems to be dealing effectively with the challenges, such as rising raw material and energy costs, that have come its way while continuing to seek out new markets.

This has driven investor enthusiasm. Its shares yesterday rose 6% to 108p, returning to the level of two years ago despite the intervening market turmoil.

In the face of faltering consumer spending, Devro boosted underlying pre-tax profits by 16.9% to £9.2m for the first six months of 2009, on sales volumes that were up 5.6%.

A tail wind from currency movements added about £600,000 to earnings in the period.

The firm's performance was achieved even though its core market of Europe, which still accounts for more than half of sales, has been tough.

Sales volumes from the region were up just 0.8% over the period, in large part because of economic problems in Eastern Europe and Russia. The UK and Germany each showed modest growth.

But elsewhere, sales are soaring. In the Americas, volumes are up 6.2% thanks to a 38% uplift year on year in Latin America. But prices have barely moved.

And in Asia there was a massive 15.5% surge in sales volumes, much of it from China. Its increasingly wealthy population is eating more meat and the wider use of refrigerators is seeing customers switching from the plastic-wrapped preserved products they previously favoured.

This is not to say the company hasn't faced tough challenges in recent months. Lacklustre sales in the motor and aviation industries led to a shortage of collagen, a by-product of leather, earlier this year.

This added £2.3m to costs in the first half of 2009 and will cost Devro another £1.5m during the rest of the year.

Being locked into high energy prices as part of a contract entered into in early 2008 knocked £3m off earnings, although this impact should fall away later this year.

The company also faces a pension deficit that ballooned from £27.7m to £37.7m thanks to falls in equity markets. It is currently putting around £1m extra a year into each of its US and UK schemes.

Devro has reacted by wringing efficiencies out of its factories in Moodiesburn and Australia.

Problems such as breaks in casings or producing material that is too brittle have been reduced.

Chief executive Peter Page said: "We are throwing less in the bin and having more to sell. We have taken a fresh look at it and raised the output from the same capacity considerably."

In the second half of its financial year, it will benefit from the opening of a more efficient factory in the Czech Republic, netting the company £2m in annual savings.

It has also managed to boost prices by an average of 4.4% despite the economic downturn.

Page said that rather than imposing blanket rises, working with individual customers has paid off. "They are looking for value and consistency and at the same time they want to have a point of difference for their customers. It has kept us very busy working with customers."

He added: "There will be instances when people want a better price and we just know the price at which we walk away. Given the cost increases we have faced, it would be irresponsible not to take notice of them."

This gave the company enough leeway to reduce its debt by 15.4% to £29.2m at the end of June.

Devro is expecting volume growth for the rest of year. Longer term, there is room for expansion. Some 90% of the German sausage output is made with traditional gut skins. The ultimate target is the Middle East and India.

More good news could be to come. Devro, which yesterday declared an unchanged interim dividend of 1.425p, said it will consider pushing up pay-outs when cover reaches two times income.

House broker Investec yesterday upgraded its profit target for the stock from £19.7m to £21.8m for the full year, which would give it dividend cover of 2.2 times.

Devro might not be a sizzler, but the numbers are cooking along nicely.