26th Mar 2007 07:01
Wincanton PLC26 March 2007 For Immediate Release 26 March 2007 Wincanton plc ("Wincanton" or "the Group") Pre-Close Trading Update Wincanton today issues the following pre-close season trading update for thetwelve months ending 31st March 2007: "As indicated at the half year, Wincanton will deliver another year of goodprogress in the year to 31st March 2007. Results will be in line withexpectations, building further on the Group's track record of consistentprofitable growth. The strong momentum in our UK & Ireland business has continued into the secondhalf, with contract wins, renewals and start-ups across all areas of ouractivities. Recent contract gains include a new distribution centre forAsda-WalMart, a significant expansion of our Comet transport activities, asecond automated warehousing facility for Screwfix, a co-packing andco-manufacturing operation for Nestle Purina, a new composite distributioncentre for J. Sainsbury and a new non-food operation for Dunnes Stores inIreland. New customers added in the period include OOCL and Jacuzzi. Our recent acquisitions in the construction and home delivery sectors areprogressing well with both now substantially integrated into the Group andperforming in line with our projections. A contract gain with Cemex UK confirmedthe potential for further expansion of our customer base in the constructionindustry. Good progress in improving the operational efficiency of our homedelivery business will also allow us to expand our customer base in thisfast-growing sector, with a new contract with Woolworths having already beenadded. Our growing portfolio of support services activities continues to makeprogress, with a new contract win by Wincanton Records Management generatingsignificant incremental volume for our recently-expanded London site and goodbusiness gains also recorded in Pullman Fleet Services, consulting and wasterecycling. We will also, going forward, have ground to make up in the UK and Ireland forcontract losses, but our development pipeline remains very encouraging. In Mainland Europe, we have closed down our loss-making Spanish operations andthe related freehold properties are being sold. Margin pressure as a consequenceof higher sub-contractor prices has been addressed through price increases,although underlying transport markets remain challenging. Our new managementteams in France and Germany continue to make progress in reinforcing theoperational excellence of our service offering and building momentum in thedevelopment pipeline. We continue to see high levels of new business activity inCentral and Eastern Europe although contract start-up costs have restrictedprofit improvement in the region. Recent new wins in Mainland Europe includecontract gains with Johnson-Diversey, Cussons, Rieber Foods and Selena inCentral and Eastern Europe, Velux in France, and a number of leadingmanufacturers in Germany. Exceptional costs in the year will relate principally to the Spanish closure,the integration of our UK acquisitions and the final phase of the integration oflast year's French acquisition. We expect these exceptional costs to be offsetby the proceeds of our ongoing programme of property disposals. We are also announcing separately today a new joint venture with KerryLogistics, a leading Asian-based provider of supply chain services, to extendthe range of our customer services to cover Asian and inbound supply chainmanagement." Graeme McFaull, Wincanton's Chief Executive commented: "The UK continues to be the key driver of our profit growth and cash generation.New business momentum remains very strong. We remain confident that thesignificant investment in people, systems and marketing across Mainland Europewill deliver a strong platform for future growth". For further enquiries please contact: Wincanton plc Tel: 01249 710 000Graeme McFaull, Chief ExecutiveGerard Connell, Group Finance Director Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000Charles Ryland / Jeremy Garcia This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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