Increased profits at NFC

AS SHAREHOLDERS gathered at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham for the annual general meeting of NFC, the transport and logistics company announced that operating profits in the first quarter of its financial year ending 23 January had risen by 29 per cent to pounds 27.7m, writes John Moore.

NFC, where workers and their families dominate the register of shareholders, said that there had been an 11 per cent increase in turnover to pounds 557.4m. Earnings per share were 8 per cent higher at 2.7p.

The meeting of 1,200 was addressed by various executives including Jack Mather (above), chief executive. The group warned of the uncertainty in the economy and directors said they did not expect NFC to gain any significant benefit from any upturn in the economies in which it operates this year.

In the last financial year, ending October 1992, pre- tax profits fell slightly from pounds 93.7m to pounds 91m.

NFC, the former National Freight Corporation, has developed rapidly since a pounds 53.5m buyout from the Government in 1982 that set a new benchmark for employee share ownership.

(Photograph omitted)