John G Russell benefits as customer business booms

Scottish multimodal operator John G Russell has said it is attracting new customers via its UK-wide road and rail network, and that it will continue to benefit from an increased workload as a result.

Having now shed its sister chest-freezer manufacturing unit, John G Russell (Transport) saw a 9.3% increase in turnover for the year-ending 31 March 2014 to £60m, from £54.9m in the previous year. Pre-tax profit increased by 183.5% year-on-year, from £933,743 to £2.65m.

Chief executive Alan Poulton said: "Rail activities continued to increase and offer a wide range of key customers not only an efficient route-to-market but also the opportunity to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.

"We remain committed to the achievement of a high quality, reliable, robust and cost-effective logistics service to the UK market,” he added.

However, in its filing at Companies House, the directors’ report states that its rail activities saw “a modest uplift in revenues” but “struggled to gain the volume necessary for economic sustainability.”

The report added that “considerable challenges remain within the rail freight sector” bit it described them as “challenges that the directors are confident that the company… can meet”.

Furthermore it stated that significant volume growth from core customers in the food and drink manufacturing and retailing space, helped maintain margin growth.