A raft of contract wins and the takeover of a specialist eCommerce fulfilment firm helped revenue drive ahead at national logistics group Wincanton.
In a trading update to shareholders the Chippenham-headquartered business also said it was managing to manage inflationary pressures by passing on cost increases to its customers.
Revenue for the six months to 30 September will be around 8% up on the same period last year, Wincanton said as a result of continued volume and new business growth across all four business of its sectors.
Its eFulfilment sector, which has expanded rapidly over recent years due to the boom in home shopping, delivered growth of around 18%.
A large part of that came from the latest acquisition, in September last year, of Northampton-based Cygnia, one of the UK’s principal providers of supply-chain services to high-profile consumer-facing brands such as BrewDog, Moonpig and Molton Brown.
Revenue in public & industrial rose by approximately 6% while its general merchandise and grocery & consumer sectors grew around 11% and 4% respectively.
Wincanton, Britain’s largest third-party logistics group employing around 19,600 workers, including 5,500 drivers, said its service proposition it continues to win new business, from both new and existing customers, with new contracts from the likes of Primark, The White Company, MGA, Wickes and DEFRA contributing significantly to the year-on-year increase in revenue.
It also said that with around 70% of its contracts remaining ‘open book’ –providing a clear mechanism for cost increases to be passed to customers – it could manage the current near double-digit inflation.
This was particularly true in its foundation sectors of general merchandise and grocery & consumer, it said.
At the same time, it was also continuing to take what it called a proactive approach to managing the commercial consequences of cost pressures in its closed book contracts.
As a result, the board expects its financial performance to be line with market expectations for the full year.
Wincanton, which operates more than 200 sites across the country and has around 3,500 vehicles on the road, will announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 September on 15 November.
