CIRCLE EXPRESS almost halved its losses last year as the
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company pursued a "top to bottom" restructuring strategy while operating within a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).
Chief executive Chris Coffey said the company was meeting all the forecasts and budgets and that it has received "tremendous support" from both clients and suppliers.
For the year ended October 2012 Circle Express made a £196,000 pre-tax loss, compared with a £359,000 loss in 2011. "We have reviewed every contract, truck and trunker run and analysed everything. We put in a huge number of operating procedures and really went from
top to bottom in restructuring," Coffey said. "That is an ongoing thing for the rest of the company's life, but the CVA certainly allowed us more flexibility."
Under the terms of the CVA, Circle is able to continue trading while it repays its historical debts over five years at a rate of 38.3p in the pound owed to unsecured creditors (CM 2 August 2012).
Coffey said it had to make redundancies, but added: "I think we are back to where we were in staff levels pre-CVA. No one can say we are out of the woods, but in terms of the CVA we are meeting all the forecasts and budgets. In fact, we are slightly in front." He predicted that the company should be in at least a breakeven position by the end of October this year.