Tilbury, Essex-based haulage, freight forwarding and logistics firm Arcese UK said it is working to address its business performance after suffering a 90% fall in profit over the past two years.

Turnover in the year ending 31 December 2014 fell 4% to £23.02m (2013: £24.07m), while pre-tax profit dropped 85% to just under £37,000 (2013: £258,000).

This is the second year running that profit has been hit hard at the Italian-owned firm. Last year’s pre-tax profit was 30% down on the previous year and the firm’s latest pre-tax profit is less than 10% of that achieved in 2012 (£372,000).

Much of the fall in 2014’s turnover resulted from dwindling international work, revenues from which came to just over £9.3m (2013: £10.3m). UK-generated turnover was only fractionally down, from £13.7m to £13.6m.

MD Keith Luetchford was unavailable for comment but in their financial report for the year, the firm’s directors once again noted that rates had not been increased during the year, adding that some of the positive effect of falling fuel prices had been given back to clients via a reduction in the fuel surcharge the company applies.

They said the firm, which runs about 80 vehicles and employs 145 staff, was working to increase both turnover and operating profit during the current year.

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