Kerry Logistics posts healthy profit after expanding sales teams

Kerry Logistics (UK), the Manchester-based 3PL and freight forwarding company, boosted its profit by 28.8% in the year ending 31 December 2019 following investment in its sales teams.

Turnover in the period rose £613,000 to £70.6m, although it also saw a reduction in volumes following a strategic decision to “focus on the customers prepared to pay fair rates, who value service levels and are prepared to build relationships”.

Pre-tax profit increased by £546,000 to £2.4m.

It added: “We have developed and increased our sales and commercial teams in order to secure additional new business volume that has helped us to offset the loss of some customers and improve overall gross profit levels.”

The company holds standard national operator licences in the North East and North West traffic areas, with its Trafford Park operating centre being the largest, authorising 25 HGVs and 30 trailers.

Kerry Logistics (UK) said it did not expect Covid-19 to have a negative impact on its results during 2020 and although the lockdown in China resulted in delays and shipment cancellations during Q1 and Q2, it was financially strong and had “been able to mitigate the negative financial impact of lower volumes with opportunities to ship PPE in our air freight division, the government furlough scheme and some redundancies that should help the business meet its budgeted result in 2020".