Stobart operating profits up 10%

LOGISTICS, warehousing to airports and biomass group Stobart, says its is “on track” to deliver on its growth strategy after a “pivotal year”.

Stobart said underlying operating profit in the year to the end of February was up 10% to £44.9m as revenues from continuing operations rose from £491.7m to £572.4m.

The Warrington and Carlisle-based company pegged its final dividend at 4p per share, leaving the total for the year unchanged at 6p per share.

Chief executive Andrew Tinkler said: “Despite a turbulent year and a tough economic environment, our continuing operating businesses have produced a profit from continuing operations 10% up on last year and have again given us a good return on investment.

“We are now at a pivotal point in our four year plan and with our investment programme nearly complete we are moving into our value optimisation phase. Through our property assets we will be looking to return cash into the business, while our Air and Biomass businesses are poised to deliver further value enhancement.

“Our management team is now focused on realising value from the investments made over the last few years.”

Highlights for the year included a new long-term deal with supermarket giant Tesco, while the group’s loss-making chilled pallett business was closed down.

Corporate governance at the group has been recently questioned after the rapid departure of executive chairman Avril Palmer-Baunack after just a few months in the role. This prompted Investec, the company’s City broker to resign.