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Wincanton chief executive Graham McFaull says he is relatively happy with the firm's latest results, despite underlying pre-tax profit for the year to 31 March 2009 declining to £41.3m - 1.2% down on the previous year.

Pre-tax profit after exceptional items was even worse: it fell to £20m, down from £36.7m in the  year to 31 March 2008, as the company attempted to cope with restructuring charges and a one-off hit of £2m from collapsed customer Woolworths. Turnover rose by some £200m to £2.3bn.

Speaking to MT, McFaull says: "I'm as pleased as we can be given that, to all intents and purposes, we are standing still." McFaull says the firm moved to tackle costs as soon as the recession began to bite, losing staff from HR, finance and IT, and cutting back on non-essential travel.

Despite exposure to the recession-hit construction and container sectors, McFaull remains confident. He explains: "It's a resilient business where we see a lot of upside potential over the next few years."

In construction, customers have seen volumes dip by around 35%, and in containers by 25%, he says. As a result, Wincanton has been forced to look at ways of cutting waste from its customers'  supply chains.

He says: "The positive thing is that we are picking up market share - although it doesn't compensate entirely for the 25% decline, it augers well for when the market recovers."

The company is also winning new business "across the board", in both its traditional retail business and in other sectors; McFaull sees it as "robust" for the next 12 months.

"The economy is encouraging people to outsource for the first time and also making people look at their supplier base and narrow it - that favours larger companies like Wincanton," he adds.

However, he predicts that the year to 31 March 2010 will be broadly flat in terms of operating profit, while pre-tax profit will be hit by increased interest charges as it renegotiates its debt.