Weak French auto market impacts Autologic results
Autologic, one of Europe’s largest finished vehicle logistics companies and owner of such brands as Walon and Ansa, has released its results for the first half of 2004. Turnover at the company fell from £358.6m (€522.7m) to £347.9m (€507.9m) and operating profits also dropped from £19.1m (€27.9m) in the period to £14.9m (€21.8m).
The fall in revenues was partly attributed to the disposal of the company’s loss making subsidiary Acumen to Dutch company Ewals. Acumen had focused on automotive inbound logistics which management decided was a non-core activity. Taking into account this disposal, like-with-like sales grew by 0.5%.
The company experienced widely varying market conditions across Europe. In Spain and the UK increasing volumes led to improved sales and profitability. Although new car registrations in the Netherlands fell, the increased flexibility and efficiencies introduced in its Benelux division allowed it to improve its results. Despite this the region still returned a loss. However its biggest problem was in France where its re-structuring was not able to prevent lower volumes from impacting on results. The weak market also affected its Groupe CAT joint venture. Renault sales (Groupe Cat’s former owner and largest single customer) were below the European average although this was compensated by sales to other automotive companies.
Management commented that in the UK the company had started to realize the new opportunities provided by changes in European legislation to so-called ‘block exemption’ (that is, the liberalization of rules applying to the distribution of new cars). This has allowed the company to work directly with vehicle dealerships and could provide a major new revenue stream.
