Staycations helped deliver results

Rory Clarke, managing director J.R. Rix

A leisure home and lodge manufacturing arm of a Yorkshire business helped deliver a £5.9m profit for the group – a 16% rise for the firm.

In newly published financial results, Victory Leisure Homes, part of J.R. Rix & Sons, saw pre-tax profits at the Gilberdyke business surge from £256,000 in 2015 to £1.5m in the Year to December 2016, helping to drive a 16% rise in group profit, from £5.1m to £5.9m. The group also has property and petroleum divisions.

Overall, group revenue fell from £359m to £348m, reflecting a fall in turnover for both the inland and marine fuel businesses.

Maritime Bunkering’s turnover dropped from £30.5m to £25.5m, profits increased from £718,000 to £1m – which the firm said was due to cost saving.

Rix Petroleum’s turnover fell from £284m in 2015 to £272m last year, with profits reducing from £2.7m to £2.1m. However, market share remained the same, with the company selling approximately 400m litres of petroleum products in both years.

Rory Clarke, managing director of J.R. Rix & Sons, which has its HQ in Hull, said Victory Leisure Homes had benefited from an increased demand in the domestic holiday market. He said: “Victory Leisure Homes has had a fantastic year, helped by an increase in the number of holiday makers who decided to stay in the UK. Uncertainty abroad, combined with the fall in the value of the pound following the Brexit vote, have had a significant influence on the holiday market. The Victory brand continues to become established, which in turn has created increased market share.”

 

Clarke added: “Rix Petroleum is the largest company in the J.R. Rix & Sons Group. Whilst oil prices increased during 2016, they remained below the 2015 average. Following the Brexit vote, the value of sterling weakened against the dollar in the second half of the year, and oil is traded in US dollars.

“Despite selling a similar volume of fuel and maintaining market share, company turnover reduced, primarily as a result of selling a greater volume of low-duty product last year and a lower volume of high-duty product. As fuel duty makes up a significant proportion of our turnover, this shift of emphasis had a corresponding effect.”

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