A £1m impairment charge connected to Fagan & Whalley’s acquisition of Alan R Jones & Sons plunged the Lancashire transport firm into the red last year, but its MD said profitability had now returned.
The Padiham haulier saw revenues increase by £918,000 in the year ending 30 April 2025 to £35.7m, but the non-cash expense of almost £1.1m meant it recorded a pre-tax loss of almost £930,000.
Fagan & Whalley purchased Welsh logistics business Alan R Jones as part of an expansion plan in February 2022 and the move immediately added 39 HGVs to its fleet, as well as 40,000sq ft of warehousing and a distribution depot.
The name was changed to Fagan & Whalley Newport in 2024 and now it is in the process of being consolidated into the wider business – a transition boss Sam Fagan said would take two to three years to complete.
Speaking to Motor Transport, Fagan said that impairments costs aside, its results were still down on the previous year, due in large part to an increase in employment costs.
However, he added: “Trading has steadied, profitability has returned to expected levels.
“We have managed to look at how costs have increased and recovered these through customer increases.”
Operating profit during the accounting period reduced from £881,000 in 2024 to £529,000: “We recognised an impairment charge of £1,085,222 to our investment in (Fagan & Whalley Newport) due to restructuring of how the two companies operate between each other,” the company’s latest business review said.
“This is a non-cash expense and not included as part of the operating profit, therefore this has been excluded in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA.”
