UK lorry operator Brake Brothers, which supplies food to the catering industry, blamed rising fuel costs and difficult Q4 trading conditions for full year profits that will not meet forecasts. Finance director Len Hughes said yesterday (11 January): “We’re down on where we would have liked to have been if it hadn’t been for all the troubles.”
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He explained that an extra £2m in costs was incurred last year as the group’s 1,400 lorries were hit by rising fuel prices. While floods, rail disruption and fuel shortages sweep the country, Brake Brothers also noticed that customers were deterred from placing orders, meaning that H2 sales suffered on a like-for-like basis.
Hopes are still riding high however, Hughes commenting, “we want to be as big in chilled as we are in frozen.” Currently Brake Brothers control 10% of the chilled food market and 30% of the frozen food sector.
Inroads have also been made into the French market, as a £16m acquisition of three private companies that supply chilled and frozen food in the Rhone Alps area was finalised, boosting Brake Brothers’ French business by 50% and heralding the first acquisition in France for three years.
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