News

By Sally Nash

Temperature-controlled operator Fowler Welch Coolchain has revealed that the company wants to grow its ambient distribution business after snapping up R F Fielding Cheshire last year.

Fowler Welch, part of the aviation and distribution group Dart, says the acquisition was a "competitive based entry" into the ambient market which will add £15m to its turnover and gives the company a "strategically located" 160,000 sq ft warehouse in Stockport. The directors say they  plan to use the acquisition "as a platform to grow its ambient distribution business".

The company's planned expansion into the ambient market was set out in its latest results for the year to March 2006. Fowler Welch pushed turnover up to £98m in 2006 from £83.6m in 2005 while operating profit edged up to £3m from £2.8m and pre-tax profit also rose by around £200,000 to £3.2m.

On the temperature-controlled side of the business Fowler Welch is investing more than £5m on a new 11-acre site in the North-east, fitted out with chilled storage and loading docks. This will enable the company to "further grow its operation out of the region".

Warehousing and picking operations are also expanding with a site in Teynham, Kent at near capacity. Fowler Welch also signed a five-year contract with Bernard Matthews - the company at the centre of the recent bird flu outbreak - last year.

Dart Group's interim results for the six months to September 2006 show that Fowler  Welch "made further progress with increased sales and profits" over the period.

Dart Group made a profit of £22.1m for the six months (2005 restated: £14.7m), before tax, goodwill amor- tisation and exceptional items.

Dart sold its non-core Channel Islands' logistics business Channel Express in July 2006.