Europa Worldwide Group “officially on the acquisition trail”
Logistics operator Europa Worldwide Group has announced this morning (7 July) that it is “officially on the acquisition trail”. The business was acquired in 2013 by Managing Director Andrew Baxter and, following a front-end restructuring which has seen turnover increase to £116m, Europa says that it now intends to expand through a “combination of organic growth and acquisitions”.
To begin with, the company has revealed it is looking to buy a “£20m-£60m turnover freight business”.
Baxter elaborated: “We are pretty open minded in terms of acquisition targets. We are looking to develop all of our international markets, therefore the first acquisition may be air, sea or road orientated. We are also pretty open as to whether the business is a regional or national operator, or where it is based in the UK. As long as the business adds strength to our market position in one of our core sectors, then we are happy.”
Europa Worldwide Group’s turnover has seen a £20m increase on the previous year, while profit before tax has increased to £2.3m from a loss of £1.6m in 2015. Projected turnover for the business for 2017 is £140m.
Baxter added: “We’re in a very strong position now and so I believe the time is right to start to acquire businesses which fit well within our operating model and which will improve our market position.
“We believe that we will continue to have strong organic growth of around 20% across the business this year. In the Road division, during the last two years we have been focused upon building daily services from Dartford to around 30 European hubs. Now that that project is nearing completion, we are planning to start developing additional lines to the continent directly from our 10 regional depots.
“If, for example, we were to acquire a regional operator, with existing direct lines, then this would help speed up this process. We see the opportunity to make multiple acquisitions of this nature in the next few years. In addition, we want to strengthen our Air and Sea activities. Therefore, again we are interested in those opportunities.”
