Profits-boost Pointer Group opens brake-testing centre
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BY JOHN N. FRIEDMAN
been wagging this week—with joy. For the Group 1966—"one of the most difficult for many years", topping even the record 1965 figure of £636,410. announced gross profits for the year ended December 31, E tail of the famous Pointer Group emblem must have according to chairman Mr. Peter H. Pointer—of £646,975, And, almost coinciding with the publication of its glowing annual report, the Group on Tuesday at Norwich opened East Anglia's first brake-testing centre—the only one to Ministry of Transport standard operated by any similar group in the UK. A notable first.
The Group's profit figure is all the more impressive because the 1965 figure was boosted by £21,353 from land sales. And because 1966 was the Group's worst-ever bad debts year: it had to write off L10,009.
Final dividend is 221 per cent, making a sameagain total for the year of 321 per cent.
Of the Group trading profit, 49 per cent came from transport and storage. Pointer Group Transport Ltd.—Pointers Transport Services Ltd., Pointer Tanker Services Ltd., Hamblin's Haulage Ltd., and A. G. Rix Ltd.—says Mr. Pointer, "had an excellent year and has justified the heavy expenditure on re-equipping the larger part of its fleet".
Pointer Group Transport operates a fleet of more than 450 vehicles, including a wide variety of general and specialized types. Many of these are artics and there are a large number of bulk liquid tankers.
Group haulage activity is not confined to East Anglia: it has a substantial number of A licences and operates all over the UK. Its cross-Channel trailer service is well established on the Continent. And it is equipped for all maintenance and repair work.
Main reason for the opening of the Norwich brake-testing centre is, of course, the new braking standards. But not only Pointer's 450-odd vehicles will benefit: the centre is open—at a fee, naturally —to all operators.
Its opening ceremony on Tuesday was performed by the Chief Constable of Norfolk, and by the present holder of the Lorry Driver of the Year award—Mr. F. C. P. Garland.
Local Ministry of Transport officials and local hauliers watched vehicles of various tonnages undergoing tests by the Triangle Dynamic Brake Tester equipment fitted (which was evaluated in COMMERCIAL MOTOR of June 10).