Maxi Haulage blames fuel price increase for profit fall

Maxi Haulage says its pre-tax profit fall of 24% in its most recent financial year was "entirely due to increased fuel costs".

The Scottish haulier increased its revenue by £209,574 to £34.5m for the year ending 30 September 2010, but pre-tax profit fell to £1.9m, from £2.4m a year ago, in the same period.

Chairman Gerry Atkinson says: "We managed to increase business but, not surprisingly, our profits are down almost entirely due to fuel price increases.

"I believe this is an exceptionally good result under the circumstances," he adds.

Atkinson explains that there is less scope for further efficiency improvements because of the cost of inflation not being recovered under the scope of its contracts. However, the group has increased employees wages during the year.

"This year's position is good in that we have continued to increase business but are still suffering heavy cost increases, particularly on shipping rates to the Irish Republic where there has been a big reduction in capacity forcing up rates which, to be fair to the shipping companies, were unsustainable," he adds.

Maxi Haulage has also spent the past year investing heavily in its fleet, taking its trailer fleet up to 600, in a £2.5m upgrade.