Wincanton PLC (LSE:WIN) has said its third-quarter revenue was lower than a record period a year earlier, but it continued to trade in line with expectations for the nine months to the end of December 2022.
The company said its board expects the logistics group to report a profit for the current year (FY23) in line with market expectations, despite the challenging UK economic, political and labour environments that have impacted both top-line growth and underlying cost base.
City analysts forecast profit before tax of between £61.4mln and £62.6mln.
Group revenue in the third quarter fell by 1.4%, with the grocery & consumer sector worst hit, with a 7% decline, while the general merchandise sector was up 0.6%.
A strong performance was seen in the e-fulfilment sector, with revenue up 13.6% on the back of new contracts starting with The White Company, City Electrical Factors and Saint Gobain earlier in the year, while Cygnia, the e-fulfilment business acquired in September 2021, was said to remain “robust” in the face of recent postal strikes and pressure on discretionary consumer spending.
Revenues in the company’s fourth sector, public & industrial, dropped by 5.8% due to lower volumes in building materials and some contract attrition.
This was partly offset by growth in public sector businesses, where revenues in the year to date are up 25.5%, helped by ongoing work with HMRC at various inland border clearance facilities together as well as with Defra.
In the trading update, the company's chief executive James Wroath said: “We remain focussed on driving growth with both new and existing customers; our strong pipeline is critical to Wincanton's ability to negate the challenging external environment that we are facing.
“We continue to make great strides in supporting our technology propositions for customers, including automation and robotics, and this is supporting strong operational delivery across the group."