By Chris Prentice

NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - British merchant Plexus Cotton Ltd saw a $5.7-million loss in 2014, following losses of $1.3 million the year earlier, as depressed prices and low volatility hit trading operations, according to documents filed on Tuesday.

The private, Liverpool-based firm's losses were led by its trading division hit by a "lack of volatility in the market and low price levels," Plexus (NasdaqGS: PLXS - news) said in its filing to British regulator Companies House.

Among commodity trading companies, Plexus is rare in that it only trades cotton. The filings thus provide more depth and detail on the operational impact on merchants of last year's plunge of cotton prices to five-year lows below 60 cents a lb.

Benchmark cotton prices on ICE Futures U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . currently languish near those levels.

Plexus said it also saw losses last year in its seed cotton and downstream ginning operations in Africa, primarily due to small crop sizes.

Last year also saw a management shuffle as its head of Plexus trading in the United Kingdom left for Brazilian bank BTG (Other OTC: BTGYY - news) Pactual.

Plexus appointed a new head of trading and installed a new Group Finance Director from outside the cotton industry and a non-executive director from soft commodities and fertilizer trade house Agrifert SA all last year, the company said in its filing on Tuesday.

"Overall whilst 2014 was a challenging year in terms of financial performance, the strategic initiatives put in place will begin to bear fruit in 2015," Plexus said, forecasting a return to profitability in the trading business and growth in Africa.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice Editing by W Simon)