Tinkler pleased with Stobart’s progress
STOBART chief executive Andrew Tinkler says he is confident the firm’s four-year plan “will deliver enhanced value across the group” after announcing a 10% increase in annual sales to £551.9m (£500.4m).
The group’s pre-tax profit also edged up by 3% to £30.5m in the year to February 29, and the firm said that its new five-division structure was working well, with good progress made across all of its divisions.
Although Stobart Air was the only division to declare a loss, the firm said this was due to investments made at London Southend, where it completed the first and most substantial phase of a major redevelopment.
The airport now has two airlines – easyJet and Aer Lingus Regional – operating from it and up to eight trains an hour running from the airport’s new station to central London.
Mr Tinkler described the airport as “arguably the jewel in the Stobart crown this year”, and said he was pleased the latest phase of redevelopment had been completed on time for the Olympics and within budget.
The biggest part of the business, storage and distribution, also achieved success, declaring a segment profit of over £27.4m on sales of £519.5m. Margins were lower than last year, which the firm said reflected “challenging” market conditions but was also due to a large-scale restructuring of its ambient transport network which saw it close a base in Leeds.
It has also begun restructuring the chilled transport division, which could see it closing two sites and transferring operations to a new site at Lutterworth in Leicestershire. This could cost the business £2.9m in the current financial year, but lead to long-term annual savings of £1.5m.
The firm also praised the “excellent” contribution from Stobart Estates, which acquired a portfolio owned by Mr Tinkler and fellow director William Stobart in a £100m deal in February. Mr Tinkler said that although this was still a relatively new business for the group, it had “already shown strong performance in identifying key operational assets for acquisition”.
Its infrastructure and civil engineering division more than doubled its profit contribution, making a segment profit of £4.4m on turnover of £13.2m, while the biomass division contributed a £1.2m profit on sales of £8.4m following the acquisition of the 50% of the Stobart Biomass Products joint venture from its former partner in the first quarter of the financial year.
The company also reported a big increase in net assets, partly as a result of the property acquisition, to £472.7m (2011: £331.7m).
Mr Tinkler said: “Each of the group’s divisions has good growth potential. As we enter the second year of our plan, we are confident that the changes we are implementing will deliver enhanced value across the group.”
Unusually, the firm has also announced the launch of a new service that will allow members of the public to use a barrister without needing to employ a solicitor.
It said the Stobart Barristers service will offer access to a UK-wide network of specialist barristers for any area of law, using a ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing model during litigation.
The division is headed by the Group’s legal director, Trevor Howarth, and was formed following Stobart’s decision to employ its own barristers without a solicitor in 2008 – a move which it said created “significant” savings on its own legal fees.
It argues that the service custs barristers’ costs by around 50% when compared with employing them through a solcitor.
Mr Howarth said: “Our model cuts out waste and opens up access to a national panel of barristers that are selected for their ability to meet our clients’ needs.”
