Cambridgeshire-based Knowles Transport slipped into the red after operational issues at its - at that point - newly opened Wisbech DC resulted in “significant costs”.
The firm’s newly published annual results covering the year to 31 December 2017, reveal that that while turnover at the company rose to £30.4m (2016: £23.2m) in the period, it actually made a pre-tax loss of £4.4m. This compared with a profit of £2m in the previous year.
In its strategic report to the accounts the firm attributed the loss to “initial operating issues” at the 270,000sq ft DC, which opened in January 2017.
However, the report added in response to this that the directors remained confident that the problems were temporary and stated that the company “will return to profitability in the near future”.
Growth in turnover during the year was attributed to the retention and growth of work from new and existing customers.
Despite this, the report noted that storage revenues in the period had remained “fairly static”.
Knowles Transport was approached for comment.
