The global boom in SUV sales is driving profits at UK-based supplier GKN Driveline, CEO Andrew Reynolds Smith said.

“All-wheel drive is around a third of our sales total but is growing more quickly than the business as a whole,” Reynolds Smith told Automotive News Europe.

GKN Driveline reported that its third-quarter sales rose to 842 million pounds (about 1 billion euros) from 773 million pounds during the same period last year. The company’s quarterly trading profit rose 38 percent to 58 million pounds. Through three quarters, the supplier’s sales were up 5 percent to about 2.6 billion pounds and its trading profit rose 7 percent to 175 million pounds, the company said.

The company defines trading profit as operating profit excluding certain large charges and credits.

GKN Driveline’s success also is credited with helping parent GKN plc report a 34 percent year-on-year rise in third-quarter pre-tax profit to 131 million pounds.

The parent company, which also has aerospace and construction equipment divisions, said in its quarterly report that it expects the automotive market to remain “robust” for the rest of the year. GKN Driveline accounts for 44 percent of the overall company’s sales

GKN Driveline joined the Automotive News Europe Top 30 European suppliers list in 2012 in 27th place following its acquisition of German supplier Getrag’s awd components business in 2011.

Reynolds Smith said the company is now the market leader for awd components in Europe. When it announced the Getrag acquisition in July 2011, GKN said the combined businesses would become the top global player in awd driveline products.

Selling propshafts, transfer casings, couplings and final drive units for SUVs brings greater revenue per vehicle compared with GKN’s Driveline’s core driveshaft business, Reynolds Smith said.

“In Europe, where growth is likely to be muted over the next few years, our proportion of the awd market makes a big difference,” he added.

GKN Driveline’s global sales for awd components rose to 974 million pounds in 2012 from 639 million pounds the year before, which is the most current data available. By comparison, sales of driveshafts was static last year and in 2011 at a little less than 2 billion pounds.

The company is also capitalizing on growing SUV demand in China. “We’re confident we’ll continue to outgrow the market by about 2 percent,” Reynolds Smith said. He added that GKN is working with all the Western brands in the country as well as a number of domestic carmakers. Top customers for GKN there are Volkswagen Group followed by General Motors.

He said the company will also work with Jaguar Land Rover when it starts production at its new Chinese plant in 2014. As well as providing standard awd components, GKN also supplies Land Rover with technology for the Range Rover Evoque to decouple the propshaft in normal on-road driving conditions.