The transition from Norbert Dentressangle to XPO Logistics in 2015 saw the 3PL make strong turnover gains across its three primarily road transport based activities in the UK.

XPO acquired ND on 8 June 2015, and renamed its legal entities on 1 December 2015 – according to its most recent filings at Companies House.

In its XPO Supply Chain Business (formerly Norbert Dentressangle Logistics) turnover for the year-ending 31 December 2015 closed at £759.7m, up from £711.6m in the previous year, owing entirely to “organic growth from existing customers and new business wins”. Pre-tax profit fell slightly to £24.2m, from £26.9m in 2014 “largely due to the directors choosing to exit from a small number of loss-making activities”.

Its XPO Transport Solutions UK business (formerly Norbert Dentressangle Transport UK) also saw turnover increase, from £287m to £289.6m. It said that sales performance in the second half of 2015 “improved with stronger contract gains exiting 2015 into 2016”.

Pre-tax loss narrowed from -£9.7m to -£8.9m. It said that 2014 profitability had been affected by £2m set-up costs for a new hub for pallet distribution activity, whereas 2015 profitability had been affected by an updated analysis of potential liabilities in its property portfolio.

At XPO Bulk UK (formerly Norbert Dentressangle Bulk UK) turnover decreased by £1.5m from £85.4m to £83.9m. It said that this was due to customer losses and volume decreases, but falls were offset by the acquisition of Hopkinson Transport and its 2014 contract win with Harvest Energy (a contract previously held by Suttons Group).

Pre-tax profit at XPO Bulk UK fell from £3.6m to £1.7m. It said that this was due to £200,000 of “XPO implementation costs”; the decrease in turnover and a “single uninsured fuel contamination claim of £1.69m”.

The UK business, which also includes its freight forwarding and maintenance activities, is responsible for 12% of XPO's overall global turnover.

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