Wincanton has been forced to make redundancies to offset falling profit in its Industrial and Transport division.

In a trading update today (3 October), Wincanton said while it expects profit for the current financial year to meet expectations, it has set aside an exceptional charge of £7m to fund cost-saving initiatives, "primarily for the cost of redundancies in [its] Industry and Transport business".

The operator said it will spread the £7m charge over its financial year as the costs materialise.

The redundancies, Wincanton said, will offset profit headwinds and provide greater future resilience.

Shareholders were warned about the weaker than expected performance in the Industrial and Transport division earlier this year.

In a statement in June, Wincanton said: "In the period since the year end, we have seen year-over-year growth in revenue primarily driven by organic growth in the retail and consumer sector.

“The group has experienced weaker than expected performance in some of its transport-related contracts and activities and these have created some trading profit headwinds in the first quarter.

"These are expected to be largely mitigated by continued operational efficiencies across the business during the remainder of the year.”

In its most recent financial year, ended 31 March, Wincanton saw its turnover fall 2.6% to £1.11bn, and pre-tax profit fall by almost a third, from £65.8m to £45.4m.

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