Fowler Welch delivers turnover jump and looks ahead to profitable future

Fowler Welch has a ‘bright, interesting and profitable’ future ahead, according to its parent company.

Publishing preliminary full year results today (13 July), Dart Group revealed its logistics business saw turnover climb 14% to £163.5m (2016: £144m).

The past year has seen Fowler Welch start a new operation for Dairy Crest at Nuneaton, and its joint venture Integrated Service Solutions, which ripens, grades and packs fruits, grow in scope.

The operator’s 500,000ft² Heywood hub, a shared user site, saw depressed revenues in the second half of the year (down 4% year-on-year), which was attributed to the competitive nature of the ambient grocery distribution market.

Pre-tax profit for the period fell 17% to £4.5m (2016: £5.4m). This was in part due to the lower volumes at Heywood, and also a £400,000 bad debt in regards a poultry supplier customer that went out of business during the period.

The directors said the business had made a satisfactory start to the new year’s trading, and with a number of initiatives put in place by management coming to fruition, the board remained encouraged by the opportunities available to Fowler Welch.

Operating out of nine locations, the operator had 897,000 ft² of warehouse space (2016: 847,000ft²) at the year’s end, 487 tractive-units and 669 trailers in operation (2016: 428 and 629 respectively).