15) Eric Born, chief executive, Wincanton
Eric Born was given the not inconsiderable task of turning Wincanton around, taking on a business that in 2011 plunged to a £26m full-year loss on turnover of £2.2bn. He has delivered.
A clear out of its loss-making European businesses was one of Born’s first steps, which although necessary lead to greater losses for the business to absorb first.
Yet under his stewardship Wincanton has bounced back to profitability (as of June) and the recent Motor Transport guest editor was comfortable enough to describe the firm’s six-month results, self depreciatingly as “boringly predictable”.
If predictable means sustained profit he’ll surely happily take more of that: although group turnover was down 1.6% at £542.3min the six months to 30 September 2013, operating profit up 2.1% to £24.2m compared with the same period last year.
Wincanton is in a much happier place after a period of turmoil. Certainly it’s five year contract with supermarket chain Morrisons was a significant fillip for this “pure contract logistics” power that’s on the rise once more.
