C Butt has made its largest pre-tax profit in five years, and is back in the black for the first time in three years.

The Northamptonshire operator has had an eventful few years. It spent just six months as a Pall-Ex member in 2012/13 before withdrawing, citing lower than expected volumes.

It has also spent previous years recovering from the insolvency of a major customer, coming out of a pension scheme and dealing with insurance claims, on top of exiting the Netto contract following its acquisition by Asda.

For the financial year ending 26 April 2014 C Butt made a pre-tax profit of £122,207 on a turnover of £36.2m.

Pre-tax profit rose from a loss of £274,082 in the previous financial year, which in turn had risen from a pre-tax loss of £988,721 in the financial year before that.

It last made a profit, of £13,048, in the 12 months ending April 2011.

However, during this period, turnover has consistently fallen. During its last profitable year turnover stood at £44m. Since then it has fallen to £38.7m; £37.4m and, most recently, £36.2m.

Its filing to Companies House also shows that in the financial year it reduced its average number of road haulage, warehousing and distribution staff from 289 to 249.

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