Howard Tenens remains confident that it is “well positioned” to grow its business, despite posting a 15.4% drop in pre-tax profit last year.

The operator’s annual results for the year to 30 September 2013, filed to Companies House, revealed that despite a 3.3% increase in turnover to £57.1m (2012: £55.2m), pre-tax profit fell to £3.9m from £4.6m. Its pre-tax profit margin also dropped from 8.4% to 6.8%.

In their report, the directors attributed the reduction in profit to “losses from joint ventures”, the nature of which were not disclosed.

They added that their main objective is to attract a wider customer base and increase volumes from existing clients, which will in turn help expand its warehousing and distribution operations.

A spokeswoman told Motortransport.co.uk that over the last 12 months the firm has been “extremely well placed to realise opportunities in the market place as they have arisen”, as it owns over three million ft² in warehousing across the country. It has recently opened a 250,000ft² expansion to its Swindon premises, and a combined 270,000ft² more space in Crewe and London.

“Sales have exceeded our forecasts, primarily driven by our ability to react to fluctuating customer demands, and short timescale ad hoc requests as well as new contract logistics business,” the spokeswoman added.

The spokeswoman also revealed that 88% of the Stroud, Gloucestershire-based operator's vehicles over 18 tonnes are running on dual fuel. It recently opened its fourth gas refuelling facility at its Swindon depot.

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