NFC boosts share option
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• NFC admitted this week that it will struggle to achieve fullyear profits of £90-2,100m on a worldwide turnover of £1.6F..1.8bn. Last year it achieved £93.7m (CM 3-8 Jan).
However, it plans to boost its employee share scheme by offering workers one free share for every share bought, compared with two for every five at present.
The board is proposing a new share incentive scheme for senior management, although details have yet to be finalised. An extended option scheme for all employees is also under consideration; decisions on the proposals will be made at an extraordinary general meeting.
The proposed changes were outlined at NFC's annual general meeting at Harrogate, where the company celebrated 10 years in the private sector.
Chief executive Jack Mather told delegates that NFC faces the "longest and deepest recession since the Second World War". Jobs, vehicles and locations continue to go, he said. In the first quarter of 1992 a total of 540 jobs have been cut from the transport division, with 2.4m spent on redundancies — twice as much as this time last year. Several NFC offices will close this year.
According to Mather, the truck rental and removals business are "true barometers of the economy": neither show any sign of recovery.
Chairman James Watson told the AGM that NFC's US operation is as large now as the UK operation was 10 years ago. The group is listed on the US and the UK stock exchanges and has 50,000 shareholders: "The employee ownership structure is at the very heart of NFC and is the envy of many other companies," said Watson.
He emphasised that the group faced tough times: "As the Duke of Wellington said during the battle of Waterloo, 'It's been a hard pounding, gentlemen, but we shall win' — he did win, and so shall we."