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Macfarlane Transport is "continuing to look for strategic acquisitions", says director Stephen Cooke.

Cooke says the firm has been considering plans to double its storage capacity in Leeds to 300,000sq ft, during the next two years. He reveals Macfarlane has been in talks with "two prominent Leeds-based transport companies." But adds: "Unfortunately, neither of these are likely to be progressed at the moment and the old saying 'one has to kiss a lot of frogs to find a pricen' comes to mind."

Cooke adds that Scotland is a target growth area and Macfarlane is "actively looking at the various ways we might increase our activity north of the border." He approaches 2007 as "challenging", conceding that Macfarlane has "missed some contracts on price", and affirms the experience of many in the industry by saying it is feeling the pinch of fuel costs.

"High fuel costs continue to erode what are already thin industry margins and while we have surcharge mechanisms in place with most of our major transport accounts, we never quite achieve full recovery of these increases," he says.