The big getting bigger – Motor Transport top 100 listing
The Top Ten
Rank****Company****Turnover
DHL + Exel****(pounds sterling)2,721m (est)
1****Exel****(pounds sterling)2,171m
2****Wincanton****(pounds sterling)1,098m
2****ACR + Kuehne + Nagel****(pounds sterling)877m
3****Autologic Holdings****(pounds sterling)678m
4****DHL International (UK)****(pounds sterling)550m (est)
5****ACR Logistics****(pounds sterling)530m
6****UPS (UK)****(pounds sterling)500m (est)
7****TNT Logistics UK****(pounds sterling)470m
8****Christian Salvesen****(pounds sterling)422m
9****Kuehne + Nagel (UK)****(pounds sterling)347m
10****TDG****(pounds sterling)333m
The movers
Company, Latest rank, Previous rank, Turnover £000, Change, Pre-taxprofit £000, Change
Ryder****17****16****180,744****-12.9%****6,647****-36.9%
Target Express Holdings****19****21****140,632****+7.8%****-25,587****n/a
ANC Group****21****23****132,900****+7.8%****1,400****+166.2%
Turners (Soham)****25****25****118,730****-1.2%****14,540****+24.1% Nightfreight (GB)****29****30****112,433****+9.8%****5,023****-48.0%
G Stiller Transport****40****42****65,500****+4.3%****571****-52.4%
C Butt****69****70****29,511****+3.2%****84****n/a
Aspray Transport****89****93****18,220****+5.2%****503****-64.0%
Stan Robinson (Stafford)****100****96****15,159****-3.3%****219****-4.5%
Chris Hayter Transport****109****New****11,733****+19.9%****507****+109.0% Framptons Transport*****116****New****8,188****-2.9%****55****+28.6%
Tyson H Burridge****125****New****5,340****-0.6%****309****-6.6%
PalletForce plc****127****New****5,029****+25.0%****1,254****+7.0%
Motor Transport's Top 100 listing has proved very popular among our readers, and with good reason: it provides a useful snapshot of the current state of the industry's leading players. But it really is only a snapshot, as its figures are taken at one point in time – and as accounts are filed throughout the year, the situation can change.
So in the first of a regular series of updates, here we look at who has moved up and who has moved down – and we include a few companies which had been omitted from the list.
Of course, the biggest change in the listing has come from the buyout of Exel by Deutsche Post, and its almost complete rebranding as DHL.
Exel was already by far the largest transport firm in the UK, with a turnover of (pounds sterling)2.17bn in 2004 – just to put that in proportion, it equals the combined turnover of numbers 37 to 100 in our list.
DHL's UK arm made it the fourth largest UK operator in its own right (with an estimated turnover of (pounds sterling)550m); whether the partnership yields the hoped-for synergies or not, the firms' combined turnover will dwarf that of its nearest competitor, Wincanton.
But then, is Wincanton still the UK's second-largest operator? While it has been seen as another bid target, in fact the firm that has been taken over is ACR Logistics (formerly the logistics arm of Hays).
ACR's new owner is Kuehne + Nagel, which paid c440m for the business. Swiss-based K + N itself has a major presence in the UK, and was ranked at number nine in our list by turnover.
K + N has claimed that it will now be in the "top four or five" UK firms, but if anything this is an understatement: the combined UK turnover of the two businesses is around (pounds sterling)900m. This isn't quite enough to knock Wincanton (with a turnover of (pounds sterling)1,097m) off the number two position just yet, but again, we shall see whether the combined firm is more than the sum of its parts.
The latest big operator to be offered for sale is TNT Logistics, currently number seven in our list; whichever firm buys it is likely to be catapulted straight into the top three or four in the UK.
None of the really big operators has filed new results since the Top 100 was compiled in November, but there has been a good deal of activity lower down the table – and the news is mixed.
Among these firms there was an average growth of 4.8% in turnover, and 11.1% in pre-tax profit – but this disguises a large degree of variation in their performance. Also, of those which turned a profit, the return on turnover was typically only around 3%.
Most of the firms which have seen an increase in turnover have not seen a corresponding improvement in profits. The exceptions include ANC Group, which saw a dramatic 166% increase in profit; however its profit only equates to 1.1% of turnover.
One star performer in terms of yield has been Turners of Soham: despite (or perhaps because of) a slight drop in turnover, its profits rose by 24% and represent a healthy 12.2% of turnover.
C Butt is another relatively good performer, transforming a (pounds sterling)400,000 loss into a modest profit.
There are no really surprising moves in the list, although we do include a number of well-known firms which had been excluded – Tyson H Burridge, Framptons and PalletForce among them (these haven't actually cracked the Top 100 in terms of turnover; our list does in fact include more than 130 firms). PalletForce, in particular, put in a storming performance; its profits represent almost 25% of turnover.
A number of other firms have filed profit figures without disclosing turnover; among them is Motor Transport Haulier of the Year Mike Beer Transport, which boosted its profits by almost 18%.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Reed Business Information Ltd.
