Bartrums Road Services is looking to build new premises adjacent to its Eye, Suffolk site, that it recently relocated to in full. Director Robert Bartrum says the new depot will serve the firm's Pallet-Track operations and one of its paper distribution contracts. Building is set to start in the New Year, subject to Bartrums gaining planning permission for a 70m x 30m site, which will also provide more storage.
The money from the sale of its Diss, Norfolk site is being ploughed back in to fund
the new premises, Bartrum says, adding that the company is looking for extra land to compensate for the removal of some vehicle parking space on account of the new build. Bartrum says its latest results, for the year to December 2006, reflected that "the year started off terribly, but we had a very good end of the year as it picked up in the latter part".
Pre-tax profit for Bartrums Road Services dipped slightly to £408,566, from £418,592 in 2005. But operating profit was up by more than £200,000 to £536,569. Turnover also grew to £4.6m in 2006, from £3.2m in 2005. Sister firm Bartrums Haulage & Storage posted a turnover dip to £13.5m from £13.9m, while pre-tax profit dropped to £388,974 from £522,427.
The 2006 results for parent company The Bartrum Group were broadly in line with the previous year. Pre-tax profit grew to £878,990 from £827,721 in 2005, while turnover nudged up to £18.1m from £17.3m. Bartrum predicts that the recent and proposed fuel duty hikes will be
"horrendous - a lot of people are struggling". He adds that fuel will be a key challenge in the future - "we can't really see past that".
