John G Russell (Transport) forecasts further growth after profits spike

John G Russell (Transport) said it had benefitted from months of empty roads over the last year, which helped boost fleet productivity, fuel consumption and would result in strong financial results.

MD Alan Poulton was commenting following publication of its results for the year ending 31 March 2020, which showed that the Scottish multimodal operator increased revenues to £68.7m during the period (£68.1m).

Pre-tax profit increased by 39% to £7.4m (£5.4m).

Poulton said that during the 2019/20 trading period it had focused on new business development, which included both organic growth and customers new to the company.

“In addition, the company also continued to focus on efficiencies and utilised a suite of key performance indicators to closely measure performance across all areas of the business,” he said.

Poulton added that April and early May 2020 had been “quieter” as a result of the pandemic and first lockdown, but that volumes in its core activities and markets then began to improve: “Despite the ongoing challenges of both Covid-19 and Brexit, trading has been steady since then with only a small downturn in some markets post-Brexit,” he said.

“The company also benefited from low traffic density for a number of months which not only improved on-the-road productivity but also lead to better than normal fuel consumption and consequently, we expect to post a strong set of results for the year.”