Christian Salvesen has blamed tough trading conditions in the UK transport sector for a drop in profits. The company reported pre-tax profits of £12.5m for the year to 31 March, down from £15.4m the previous year. Revenues rose 10% to £899m. Chief executive Stewart Oades says the performance of the firm’s UK transport business is not acceptable.
“We’ve completed a thorough review of this business unit and put in place plans to move it back into profit.
“Although this will take time, UK transport is an essential part of our strategy to create a pan-European shared-user business.” Oades adds that progress to turn around the UK transport arm has been slower than hoped. “As part of the turnaround plan for our UK network business, we’re investing in new systems to achieve rapid improvement in operational efficiency. For the longer term, we’re investigating options that will require more fundamental infrastructure changes.”
