Haulage company says restructuring efforts are paying off
Wirral specialist road tanker company Abbey Logistics has welcomed an increase in earnings for the year to June 27.
Over the 12 months the business saw EBITDA rise 37% to £4.6m.
Turnover was static at £62.87m, compared with £62.68m the previous year, while pre-tax losses narrowed by 68%, from £3.668m in 2019 to a pre-tax loss of £1.26m this year, figures filed at Companies House show.
It hailed its focus on a ‘back to basics’ approach, recent management restructuring, improved financial controls and vehicle utilisation, together with several new contract wins and fleet investment.
It said its financial performance was much stronger in the second half of the period and the business has maintained this positive momentum into fiscal year 2021, resulting in £1.6m of net profit in the first four months.
The company also reported improved levels of cash flow and lower levels of net debt.
Finance director, Matthew Male, said: “Improved financial performance has continued into the new financial year and trading for the first four months to October 2020 showed an EBITDA of £3.4m, more than double the profitability delivered in the comparable four months to October 2019, maintaining the month-on-month momentum that we saw in FY20.”
Mike Ellis, business development director, said: “Whilst we have been successful in securing new customers in the past couple of years, we are now in a position both operationally and financially to increase the pace of our growth in the food, construction and polymers sectors, and are well positioned to secure opportunities already identified in our pipeline with both new and existing customers.
“The business has matured over a 10-year period, growing revenues from £18m to £65m, establishing itself as the market leader in its core market whilst successfully expanding into new sectors, led by strong customer demand and a reputation for high quality service.”
Chief executive, Steve Granite, said: “Having set out our long-term strategy to the board and our investors in 2017, we knew that we would take some pressure financially in the short-term to effectively restructure and refocus the business for sustainable and commercially responsible growth – this has given us a fantastic platform on which to grow the business whilst improving our service and delivery performance to existing customers.
“We can clearly see that the actions we took in every aspect of the business have created a company that is now operating in line with our historic levels of profitability, but based on much higher levels of revenue and with significant growth potential ahead of it.”
He added: “Our performance during the second half of last year was a clear indication that changes we have made across the business have taken effect and showed month-on-month improvements in profitability, which has continued into this year.
“Our performance has shown the strength of our unique business model and management team, which has enabled us to grow existing customer relationships, win new business, position us for growth and return Abbey Logistics to profitability, all despite the challenges of COVID-19.”
The company said it doesn’t expect to feel any impact from the Brexit process as the vast majority of the group’s revenues are derived from the movement of products within the UK.
It added: “The company is closely reviewing developments and sees opportunities for business development, with an increased level of enquiries being received after the period end for available space at its warehouse in Bromborough.”
