Brambles' 2002/03 Interim Result report, which was released today, reports on its finances for the six months which ended on December 31, 2002.
The drop in operating profits was “in line with management expectations after the trading update provided to the market in November 2002,” Brambles said in a statement. This was because of short-term costs such as a one-off charge of 31 million relating to the harmonisation of accounting policies at Brambles' pallet pooling service, CHEP, in Europe, a spokeswoman explained.
Total Brambles profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items was 142 million (97 million after tax) for the six months ending December 31, 2002. This was a 5% growth on the comparable figure from the last six months of 2001
Cleanaway
In a presentation given today, Brambles chief executive officer CK Chow said the six months had seen a steady performance by Cleanaway, which has continued to grow revenue, although he added that the waste management company continued to face a “challenging market in Europe”.
In the six months to December 2002, Cleanaway's UK revenue was 246 million – growth of 3% from the comparable period of the last six months in 2001, when revenue was 237. Although the company's technical waste operations has seen some “short term adverse impact” from the Landfill Directive and lower volume from the chemical industry, its municipal waste business had grown. This was aided by a new 5-year contract with Thurrock, Essex, worth 32 million.
Cleanaway UK's profit figures for the period have not been released, but internationally, Cleanaway's profits fell by 4% from 51 million in the last six months of 2001 to 50 million in the last six months of 2002.
Brambles confirmed that recent work streamlining and refocusing Brambles' asset portfolio has seen Cleanaway, CHEP and Recall – a global document managing business – come to represent 90% of the group's profits.
Brambles anticipates there will be further one-off costs of about 85 million over the next 30 months because of planned restructuring of CHEP Europe.
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