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Transport 'winners' boosted
Page 14
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sales by 12.3010, says survey
Industry analyst Plimsoll Publishing has identified road transport winners and losers during 2006. Chris Tindall reports.
A STUDY INTO 2,000 of the UK's leading haulage companies by Plimsoll Publishing has named 510 "winners" in 2006 in terms of sales growth and profitability.
According to senior Plimsoll analyst David Pattison. the 510 companies averaged sales growth of 12.3% and pre-tax profit margins of 4.5%. It lists Manchester's Beeline Transport, Expect Distribution in Halifax. Leicestershire's Fred Sherwood & Sons, G Sweeney in Stock ton,Leeds-based GW Sissons and Sons and Scotland's Maxi Group as "financially and commercially successful businesses" during the past 12 months. Plimsoll commends Eddie Stobart, Christian Salvesen and East Anglia's Bartnun Group for hauling themselves out of its "losers" category to join the winners, thanks to an upturn in their financial performance.
Also among the winners is Gloucestershire-based distribution and storage specialist CM Downton, which was launched in 1955 with a single £16 tipper.
It was picked out by Plimsoll as a company whose overall financial strength is described as"excellent" and which has enjoyed extremely low levels of debt.
Andrew Downton, director of CM Downton, puts his firm's success down to hard work and "a great team of people who all pull together".
He adds: "We've been in this business for 50 years. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted. But if you believe in what you're trying to do and have the right people around you, anything is achievable."
However. Pattison warns that the study shows inconsistencies in transport companies' commercial and financial behaviour: "Of the companies planning to be a winner in 2007, few will actually achieve their goal in what is a very competitive market."