Straight profits soar with Blackwall acquisition

Highlights of the year included the acquisition of competitor Blackwall, which was also based in Leeds.
Commenting on the results, James Newman, chairman of Straight, said: “2004 has been another successful year for the company. Considerable progress has been made in improving margins on the trade side of the business.

“Looking forward, once Blackwall has been fully integrated, the company will continue to look at further ways to expand its business activities.”

Results

Results
The company said that trade sales remained buoyant throughout the year and the order book going into 2005 was at “record levels”. Straight said that progress has been made in improving margins on the trade side of the business with more use of UK suppliers and benefits “starting to accrue from capital expenditure on new product tooling”.

Blackwall

In December Straight acquired its main competitor Blackwall, at a total cost of 6.75m. Straight said that it had established itself as the lead player in the kerbside container market and second in the home compost market.

“Blackwall was the clear leader in home composters and in recent years had made substantial in-roads into the growing kerbside containers market. The acquisition gives Straight the lead in all of its specialist niche markets.”

Business activities

During the year a new materials handling division was developed in conjunction with the company’s long time US supplier, Rehrig Pacific. Straight said: “A number of exciting opportunities are being explored in a market which is significantly larger than Straight’s but has relatively few good UK suppliers. The company intends to expand this division as it is both complementary and has a similar business model to its existing activities.”

New contracts

Contract awards gained in the second half of the year, included one for 820,000 from Kettering Borough Council in kerbside boxes, wheeled bins and home delivery services and a 608,000 contract to supply Somerset’s councils with kerbside containers for organic waste along with a newly designed kitchen caddy developed in conjunction with the authority.

A second 1m contract to supply wheeled bins to Northampton Borough Council will help to drive turnover forward in 2005.