Business

Car components firm CD drives back into profit

Component Distributors swung back into profit in 2016
Component Distributors swung back into profit in 2016 Component Distributors swung back into profit in 2016

MALLUSK-based motor vehicle parts and accessories firm Component Distributors Ltd swung back into profit in 2016 despite a small dip in sales, according to figures filed at Companies House.

Component Distributors is the largest part of the CD Group, a third-generation family business specialising in the import and distribution of automotive replacement parts, paint, tools and equipment,and which employs more than people across locations in Belfast, Cork and Dublin.

The CD Group was started in Belfast in 1963 by Stuart Knox and has remained in the Knox family throughout the past half century.

Its latest accounts show that the company went from a loss of £340,362 in 2015 to a profit of £140,754 last year.

Much of that was down to the fact the company had an exceptional cost of £400,000 in 2015 for restructuring.

Turnover reduced slightly over the year from £10.67m to £10.64m, but the company's gross margin, at 30.8 per cent, improved compared to the previous trading period (30.2 per cent).

Component Distributors employed 76 staff over the period (up from 74), mostly in sales and distribution, and its total wages bill came in at £2,342,836.

The four directors were paid a total of £238,584 (up from £169,584), with the highest-paid of them receiving £100,000.

As well as Component Distributors, the other smaller divisions in the CD Group include Paint Distributors services body-shops and crash-repair centres, Exhaust Centre (which distributes exhausts and catalytic converters) and computer software and service provider Meridian Systems.