John Mitchell

John Mitchell Haulage and Warehousing saw turnover rise £1.5m as it felt the benefits of consolidating its two sites at Grangemouth into one.

For the year-ending 31 March 2012, the firm reported turnover of £12m, up from £10.5m in the previous year. Pre-tax profit fell from £284,598 to £187,783, owing in part to its purchase of five acres of land adjacent to its Earls Road Industrial Estate depot in Falkirk.

MD Iain Mitchell says: “We are pleased with where we managed to finish. The main thing was that a year ago we were operating out of two sites in Grangemouth, but we managed to buy a chunk of land. The cost savings from operating out of one site have been colossal.

“We have managed to increase our haulage volumes as well and we are doing a lot more containerised haulage into areas like Teesport. But the haulage side of the business is just hard work.”

The current financial year is being helped by falling fuel prices, adds Mitchell, and it will look to make continued investments in its warehousing capacity.