Ambitious independent logistics operator Europa Worldwide Group has announced its annual results for year-end 31st December 2016, revealing the rewards of a successful 12 months of business which show turnover growth year on year up by 20 per cent.
For the first time in its 50-year history Europa has broken through the £100m turnover mark, reporting 2016’s figure to be £116m – a £20m increase on the previous year, while profit before tax has increased to £2.3m from a loss of £1.6m in 2015.
Each division of the business – Air and Sea, Showfreight, Road and Warehouse – have all seen turnover growth respectively too, with Warehouse almost 50 per cent up on its 2015 revenue figure. Projected turnover for the business for 2016-17 is £140m, with strong growth trajectories now established across all areas of the business.
The £100m milestone is all the more important for the business, as it follows on from a challenging couple of years during which its owner Andrew Baxter and his team initiated a significant restructuring to ensure a solid platform for growth.
After acquiring Europa in 2013, Andrew’s goal has always been to turn it into the market leader for the distribution of goods between the UK and Europe, within a tight time frame. He set himself the target of 2018 for this goal, and he says the business is well on track to achieve it.
He said: “Our annual results for 2015-2016 are very positive, given the complex process of restructuring which came before. We needed to make these changes in order for Europa to thrive in the future – but it wasn’t easy and there were many obstacles in our way.
“Yet we came out the other side and I’m extremely proud to say we are now stronger than ever before. Our separate divisions – Road, Warehouse, Air and Sea and Showfreight – are at the cutting edge of their sectors, innovating every day in order to offer the best possible service to our customers. I truly believe that by this time next year, we will be the leading operator for European goods distribution – a fantastic achievement which will be, as always, thanks to the commitment, passion and vision of the brilliant people who work for Europa.”
Finance Director at Europa Worldwide Group Rob Ross said: “We’re thrilled with the return to profitability which we’ve seen in the last year, with the business now in a healthy and positive financial position.
“Our success is no doubt a result of the bold decisions we made three years ago. We made the biggest single investment in Europa’s history when we opened our £30m 1hub in Dartford, which is the UK’s largest European groupage hub. We invested nearly £2m in completely overhauling our IT system by introducing our own, Leonardo TMS software, which was created in-house by our IT team. We closed some warehouses, and we reconfigured others, to ensure they were operating at maximum efficiency.”
All Europa divisions have seen an increase in revenue in 2016, with Warehouse up 47 per cent on the previous year, Showfreight up 34 per cent, Sea up 24 per cent, Road up 17 per cent and Air up 7 per cent.
Andrew added that the strong divisional results are testament to the strength of the product his teams offer, further demonstrated by how they have exceeded their targets.
“Now that some major changes for Europa have bedded in and some major changes for the UK are afoot, our mantra is to keep focused on our overall goal of being the very best in our sector, of offering our customers the most varied and reliable service possible and growing our reach throughout Europe into new markets. The sky really is the limit for Europa now that the business is running efficiently, innovatively and without complexity, as these results show.”
