Toyota's British factory has made enough profit in the past three years to offset more than a decade of steady losses.

It allows the Japanese company to record a net positive return for the first time from its 17-year investment in the plant at Burnaston in the English Midlands. Toyota recorded pretax profit up 20 per cent at £60.2 million (€89.33 million) last year at Burnaston, said Hein van Gerwen, managing director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, dragging its lifetime profit into the black. The plant also matched Japanese productivity levels for the first time last year.

That contrasts with declining fortunes at the carmakers who dominated UK motor manufacturing in 1989, when Toyota arrived. MG Rover - the remnants of British Leyland - collapsed last year. Jaguar has shut a factory and cut production elsewhere. Peugeot is closing its Coventry plant and Vauxhall has cut jobs and output at its Ellesmere Port facility in Cheshire.

The three big Japanese carmakers together are expected to account for more than half of British car production for the first time this year.

Steven Blackman, automotive partner at Ernst & Young, said Toyota's willingness to stick with Britain in spite of years of losses was part of the "relentless, step- by-step march" that has characterised the company's progress, compared with "spiky" developments at western manufacturers.

Rival Japanese carmakers Nissan and Honda - which set up in Britain in 1984 and 1989 respectively - also suffered losses, but both returned to the black in the past three years.