Peter Brown says Jack Richard & Sons are on the road to recovery

The managing director of a Fakenham based and founded haulage firm hit by the recession said he believed it is well placed to pick up business as the economy recovers.

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

Peter Brown said that although Jack Richards and Son Limited is not yet back to pre-2008 recession levels, it has been able to pick up business as competitors have scaled back or fallen by the wayside.

“The haulage industry has had a tough time,” said Mr Brown. “Quite a lot of our competitors have reduced the size of their operations. When you are a recovering company you can pick up business,” he added.

“We are in a position to grow because so many of our competitors have fallen by the wayside, but we cannot increase our prices and cannot improve our margins.”

Although there was a setback in the second half of last year with the eurozone crisis, Mr Brown said there were signs of recovery and that he was still feeling “pretty optimistic”.

The firm’s recently published accounts for the year ending May 2011 show that the firm’s turnover increased from £23,558,135 in 2010 to £25,880,205 in the year end May 2011.

Profit on ordinary activities before taxation increased from £671, 507 to £999,682 and operating profit increased from £973,407 to £1,306,491.

Mr Brown said that they were forecasting a 10pc growth in turnover in their year end in May and they were looking on course for that.

In its business review it said consolidated gross profit for the year ended May 2011 had increased by 3.9pc which was largely due to careful management of costs and restricted capital expenditure in the recessionary environment.

“We have continued to adapt this approach whilst the economic outlook is still uncertain,” the report added.

But Mr Brown said that while the business was growing profit margins had not. In the really good years our bottom line margin was about 3.5pc. It is about 2.3pc and that shows how much the margins are being squeezed by the recession. The cost of fuel has had a major impact on us and in the recession there is more competition out there. Our customers put a lot of price pressure on us to keep our costs down and reduce our costs.”

The company – which has bases in Fakenham, Wisbech and Northwich in Cheshire – employs 260 people, including 220 drivers.

Mr Brown said: “Wages have stayed down because there is no option other than to keep a tight control on them.”

The company has a focus on the food manufacturing sector and packaging sector and customers include Kellogs, Princes Foods, Premier Foods and Nestle.

Jack Richards also works in the building sector and Mr Brown said he believed there was growth potential in that industry.

He said that although the construction industry had been quiet for the last two or three years, companies like Taylor Wimpey and Travis Perkins were doing more work.

annabelle.dickson@archant.co.uk