Europa Worldwide Group back to profitability after restructure

Europa Worldwide Group smashed through the £100m turnover barrier and returned to profitability in 2016, in a year that saw the group boost its turnover by a fifth.

For the year ended 31 December 2016, Europa recorded turnover of £116.4m (2015: £96m).

Pre-tax profit also saw a significant jump last year, rising to £2.3m from loss of £1.6m in 2015.

Turnover increased in all divisions with year-on-year increases of 47% in warehousing and 17% in road transport.

Europa said the year had seen the business recover from the "disruption" of the company's restructure in 2014/15, which was initiated after MD Andrew Baxter (pictured below) bought the business in 2013. It added that the benefits of the restructure are being felt in all aspects of the business.

The financial statement adds: "The directors are very pleased with the performance of the group and believe it is now extremely well positioned to deliver a higher level of profitability during 2017."

Projected turnover for 2017 is £140m.

Baxter said it had not been easy to restructure Europa, and that there had been "many obstacles in our way".

"Yet," he added, "we came out the other side, and I’m extremely proud to say we are now stronger than ever before."

Looking forward, Baxter said the company remains focused on reaching the top of its sector.

He said: "Our mantra is to keep focused on our overall goal of being the very best in our sector, of offering our customers the most varied and reliable service possible and growing our reach throughout Europe into new markets.

"The sky really is the limit for Europa now that the business is running efficiently, innovatively and without complexity, as these results show.”