Wincanton’s underlying operating profit has risen 5.3% (£20M) for the first half on sales up 9.9% to £879.8M.
Chairman David Malpas says: “Levels of activity in our businesses in the UK and Ireland remained high in the first half. Successful contract start-ups were managed for new and existing customers such as Argos, GlaxoSmithKline, Matalan, Tulip and Unilever. We saw both business extension and expansion with other customers such as Pernod Ricard, Sainsbury, Shell Gas and Tesco.”
Business in the UK & Ireland showed a 4.0% increase in underlying operating profit, to £18.2M, on revenue up 9.0% to £574.1M. Continental Europe, with revenue up by 11.7% to £305.7M, also showed underlying profit growth on last year, up £0.3M to £1.8M.
“We are expecting to see, in the second half, a continuation of the high levels of operational activity and new business development opportunities that produced these strong results,” said Malpas.
Graeme McFaull, who is currently managing director of Wincanton’s operations in the UK and Ireland, will take over from chief executive Paul Bateman, who is retiring, on December 14, 2005.
