AAH plans to expand
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• An acquisitive AAH Distribution Services last week announced plans to move into shareduser distribution as it reported increased half-year profits.
Following its acquisition of the assets of collapsed North-East haulier Barnfather Ltd for £500,000 the company is talking to several operators in the shared-user and dedicated transport sectors. These talks are expected to be resolved by next spring.
"We're moving into shareduser distribution as well as fur ther dedicated distribution," says AAH Distribution Services managing director Tony Black. "Shared-user will be the area which will produce most growth in the 1990s."
For the six months to 30 September AAH Distribution Services showed itself a good profit earner for its parent, AAH Holdings. Distribution Services contributed £11.2m (1.6% of turnover) to AAH Holdings, while bringing in a trading profit of £1.4m — or 7.1% of the group's total. For the same period last year trading profit was £300,000 on a turnover of £6.1m.
Its results were boosted by the purchase of ECE in early April which added 60 vehicles and 130 trailers to its fleet.
Fellow AAH Holding division Environmental Services was hit by low rates in the specialised vehicle hire sector and the high expense of setting up new contracts. But the division still managed to contribute £34.7m (5.1%) to group turnover and £3m (15.2%) to the trading profit.
AAH Holdings increased its turnover by 12% to £679.7m and its pre-tax profit to £17.5m.