Road haulier Wincanton (LON:WIN) hailed business renewals and wins for higher annual profits but losses in its vehicle repair business stuck a spanner in the works.
Wincanton said it had renewed contracts with established customers such as Magnet, Total, Waitrose Wines and Spirits, HJ Heinz and Britvic.
The group did new deals with cherry-picker rental firm Lavendon Group (LON:LVD) and kitchen maker Howden Joinery (LON:HWDN).
It also extended deals with defence companies with LON:BA./BAE-Systems/" rel="3215">BAE Systems (LON:BA./BAE-Systems/" rel="3215">LON:BA.BAE-Systems/" rel="8223">LON:BA) and General Dynamics.
Underlying operating profit increased by 3.5% to £49.7m and revenue lifted 0.9% to £1.1bn. Pre-tax profit dropped dropped to £24.9m from £34.9m a year ago due partly to a £15.8mln one-off net pension gain last year.
But Wincanton faced head-winds as retailers such as Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) rejigged their networks and closed depots.
Finance chief Adrian Colman said the company had managed to keep contracts despite the changes in top management at the big supermarkets.
"The grocery market has gone through managerial change but our contract portfolio has been relatively stable," he said. "We certainly hope some of the managerial changes in retail grocery will give us opportunities to help them unlock their new strategies."
Losses in its Pullman Fleet Services vehicle repair and maintenance business had partially offset strong operational efficiency and project performance in its contract logistics operations, it said.
Colman said the losses were caused by problems in a couple of contracts Wincanton had won in the online grocery home delivery market. He said the group was off-loading the troublesome contracts and would be more cautious about taking on such deals going forward.
The group said it planned to return Pullman to profit and would make extra effort to secure new business as well as keeping existing contracts.
Chief executive Eric Born, who is leaving at the end of July for another job outside logistics, said: "Wincanton has continued to deliver against our strategy in the year and achieved revenue and profit growth plus further reductions in net debt."
Shares fell 1.75p or 1% to 170p at 08:46 in London.
Numis Securities said in a note: "Full-year trading results were in-line, driven by a strong performance in the core contract logistics business, backed by operational efficiency and further key contract wins and renewals during the year.
"While operational issues at Pullman Fleet Services have been a drag on earnings, a new management team has been appointed and we do not believe this detracts from the long-term equity story."