Plaxtons' profits
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BRITAIN'S largest luxury coach builder Plaxtons has announced a substantial reduction in profits for the year ended September 30, 1984. The Group profit fell from £1.6m to £886,000.
Most of the reduction has been attributed to a further contraction of the coach market and increased pressure on profit margins caused by "fierce foreign competition".
Profits were also affected by a five-week strike during protracted annual wage negotiations.
The group's Reeve Burgess small passenger vehicle and cab conversion company increased its effciency during the period and in consequence its profit increased significantly. Plaxtons' construction and
shop fitting activities are also suffering from public expenditure cuts, which have reduced work available and led to fierce competition.
The coachbuilding division has continued to suffer from the results of the strike which was not settled until mid-October.
As a result the number of coaches available for sale early this season has been reduced.
Additional labour has been taken on and overtime is now being worked to make up for the loss in production.
Plaxtons has received a similar number of orders this year to those received by the same time last year but it claims that competition is even more severe and it expects this will further affect profit margins.
Reeve Burgess is enjoying reasonably good early trading and the group is considering expansion to meet any increased demand for small buses and coaches following deregulation.
Plaxtons non-coach related activities are also showing signs of improvement and management is confident of the group's future.
It is progressing its plan to consolidate its major Scarborough coachbuilding activity on one of its two factory sites and new engineering facilities have been installed with this aim in mind.