News

Northampton-based EM Rogers (Transport) has pulled itself out of the red, reporting pre-tax profit of £5,316 for the year ending 31 January 2009.

The increase contrasts with a loss of £17,232 for the 12 months to 31 January 2008.

Turnover was down slightly to £17m from £17.9m a year ago.

"The changes we had to implement on the back of the loss last year are now beginning to pay off," says Sarah Rogers,  the firm's business development manager.

She says the group, which runs general haulage, groupage to Italy, car transportation, warehousing and used truck sales, experienced the losses because it was not prepared for the recession, as well as high fuel costs and poor exchange rates.

During the past 12 months, driver training has been intensified and telematics installed in each truck to help improve fuel efficiency.

Rogers adds: "We've made every employee aware of how difficult the economy is and together we are all working extremely hard."

In March 2008, the 60-truck group added a currency adjustment factor to customer bills, which Rogers says has lessened the impact of the weak pound on cross-Channel work. There have also been some driver and administrative staff redundancies.

Rogers says the focus for this year is to keep in the black and increase utilisation of its 50,000ft2 warehouse.