Retail logistics firm drives up revenue to £460m
Leeds-headquartered retail logistics firm Clipper Logistics has seen annual revenues rise 15% to £460m in a year of further organic growth.
Publishing its annual results for for the year ended 30 April 2019, the firm said its group revenue increased by 15% from £400.1m to £460.2m.
However, its pre-tax profits reduced to £13.4m from £14.3m last year. Earnings per share reduced also to 13.2p (2018: 14.2p) while its dividend per share increased by 15.5% to 9.7p (2018: 8.4p).
Clipper said that its contracts entered into the latter part of the year to 30 April 2019 fall to be accounted for as a business combination in FY20 and will enhance FY20 earnings by £3m.
The firm said it saw significant revenue growth in value-added logistics both in the UK and Europe, particularly in e-fulfilment and returns management.
This included growth in activity customers including Asda, Browns, Morrisons, Halfords, New Look, Wilko and ASOS in the UK, and Westwing and s.Oliver in Europe.
Clipper began new contracts with several major multinational customers boohoo.com subsidiary PrettyLittleThing, Ginger Ray, Levi Strauss, Vestel, the Mountain Warehouse brand Neon Sheep, Tech Data and Sports Direct in the UK, and Mountain Warehouse in Poland.
The listed firm added that it continued innovation with ‘box-in-box’ electrical returns service for John Lewis in Clipper’s Distribution Centre in Northampton.
Clipper added: it had “taken advantage of Brexit-related opportunities by extending our service offerings in warehousing and labelling to certain customers, particularly those engaged in tobacco-related activities.”
Post period end, the firm started its e-fulfilment and returns management contracts with Shop Direct and Amara Living.
Steve Parkin, executive chairman of Clipper, said: “The financial year ended 30 April 2019 has seen a continuation of our long-standing track record of achieving significant organic revenue growth, complemented by the benefit of strategic, value enhancing acquisitions made in previous years.”
“The Group continues to focus on developing innovative, cost-effective solutions that address the needs of our blue-chip client base, predominantly in the retail sector. We continue to invest in quality people to implement sector leading projects, and this, together with our ability to identify key trends and developments in the sectors we serve, means that we are confident in our ability to continue this momentum.
“We are conscious of the challenging market conditions facing UK retailers and the macroeconomic uncertainty within the UK economy; this may well have some impact in the year ahead, but we remain confident in our ability to continue the momentum in the business and are well-positioned to continue to deliver strong returns to our shareholders.”
