A shortage of warehousing space in the UK boosted Howard Tenens’ turnover and pre-tax profit in its last economic year, due to the operator’s significant property holdings and an increase in demand.
For the year ended 30 September 2015, Howard Tenens saw its pre-tax profit rise 52% to £5.1m (2014: £3.4m).
Logistics director Jamie Hartles said: “One of the reasons our figures look good is because in the UK warehouse market for storage space, there’s been very little speculative build. We own just over 3.5 million ft2 of warehousing. So demand has increased, and our occupancy levels are very strong."
Hartles said that another reason the pre-tax profit had taken a leap in the books was because the company had spent more on IT and infrastructure in the previous year (to 30 September 2014).
“The previous year we’d written off quite a lot in property and IT,” he said, “so we had a very good year but took the opportunity to write some costs off. We’ve done that again this year but not to the same extent.”
The company also saw its turnover rise 6.6% on the previous year, rising from £64.7m to £69m.
This, said Hartles, is a result of its focus on service as well as contract renewals and wins.
He said: “Our key strength, and the thing we really differentiate ourselves on is our service, and it’s stuff we’ve got going on, we’ve got a fantastic range of customers that we remain focused on.
“But on top of that we’ve signed up to some new accounts, and extended others, so we’ve won some new business. That’s helped significantly with the turnover increase.”
The company finished work on a refurbished warehouse in Manchester, which it expects to be operational by Q4 this year.
Hartles said: “We spent several million on the site to completely redo it and bring it up to a much higher specification that’s more synonymous with our brand. It’s in a great location and we’re already getting a lot of enquiries for it.”
Howard Tenens also recently hired former C Butt MD Karl Hodgkinson as its group commercial director.
Hartles said Hodgkinson had been “a welcome appointment”, and had “really helped to focus our sales approach”.
He added: "He’s got a fresh approach, he’s very experienced and has the right attitude. He’s a real go-getter."
