After a year of consolidation for national supply chain specialist Nightfreight, a three-year development plan for growth is starting to pay dividends.
Progress made in 2010 through investment in vehicle telematics and innovation is bolstering revenues for Willenhall, West Midlands based Nightfreight, which is predicting pre-tax profits of £2million for its year end November 2011, with turnover expected to reach £123million.
Nightfreight's confidence in the future is underlined by the expansion of its customer base this year, with forecasts for 2012 predicting pre-tax profits of £4.6million and revenues of £130million.
Owned by parent company Penglais Investments Ltd, Nightfreight's programme of consolidation and investment is reflected in latest financial results posted for its year end 30 November 2010, with pre-tax profits of £48,394.
Despite a difficult trading climate where existing customers again shipped less volume, revenues were £117.8million in line with company expectations.
The company's resulting growth this year reflects its strong position in delivering excellent customer service, improving operations and offering greater customer value.
Group finance director, Ian Horsfall said: "We're pleased to announce after a year of restructure and investment, we are now delivering growth over the next two years.
"Against a challenging economic climate, we have remained focused on delivering a quality service and providing greater value for customers.
"We've established a strong platform going forward as part of our three-year strategic plan with repeat business, major new client wins and operating more efficiently.
"In particular, we have seen significant demand for our specialist Deliver2home and network solutions services, as well as new business gains in the one-man parcel sector including Bosal UK, Moore Large & Co Ltd and Fusion Provida.
"Equally, customers are taking advantage of our unique ability to mix and match the combination of dedicated, shared and network services we offer, delivering a more variable cost proposition."
Progress throughout the year has seen the company - which employs over 2000 staff across 53 operating sites nationwide and 1097 vehicles - gain new customers across all areas of the business, with heightened service levels.
Underlining its success, the group has added several new account wins including Spicers, Iforce and Carpetright plc to its wide ranging UK customer base of both B2C and B2B business customers.
Furthermore, Nightfreight has a record volume of repeat business on its books with major dedicated logistics contracts being renewed with Office Depot, Jungheinrich, Vacu-lug and Rapid Racking.
"In order to add value to our current and future customer base, it is absolutely essential we continue to innovate and invest in our operations and infrastructure. By implementing a programme of investment in customer information technology and vehicle telematics, we've continued to improve the quality of information for customers whilst improving productivity by lowering fuel consumption across the entire fleet, at the same time as reducing accident damage.
"Future plans will see us create a model depot, from which all operations will be modelled. This will be a blueprint of how we expect all our depots to operate in future. We are also introducing in-cab hand held devices across our entire one-man network.
"It is essential we praise our staff and drivers for their hard work and continued support. Without them, our service levels would not be at the exceptional level they are today.
"These are exciting times for the company, we've made huge steps forward and we're firmly focused on the future and the next stage of development," said Mr Horsfall.