NEWTOWNABBEY haulage firm Montgomery Transport posted have posted annual losses of £57,000 - a year after it made profits of £830,000.
The company, which recently announced plans to take on 60 new drivers, operates a delivery network spanning Ireland, Britain and Europe.
The firm said its performance was affected by a fiercely competitive marketplace.
Turnover was slightly up in the 12 month period to September 30 2014 to £32.4 million from £31.9m the previous year.
The accounts, filed at Companies House in Belfast detail almost £2m spent on new vehicles and a sum of almost half-a-million pounds in tax refund due.
In the company's strategic report, the directors said they were "disappointed" with its results having failed to hit any of its key performance indicators.
"The company faced intense pressure in the year on rates from competitors in the highly competitive Irish Sea market and this was compounded by increase costs in most areas," the report said.
"The only area of relief was that towards the end of the financial year some pressure was removed due to the drop in oil prices.
"We have also continued our fleet replacement programme and now have one of the youngest fleets on the Irish Sea.
"Our focus in the coming year is to develop our information systems and improve our fleet analysis. We will continue to identify and develop new business opportunities within the industry sector with the view to continued growth both organically and through acquisition.
"As with many businesses of our size, the business environment in which we operate continues to be challenging. The impact of static incomes, strong competition and rising cost of haulage present us with challenges. With this in mind, we are aware that any plans for the future development of the business maybe subject to unforeseen future events outside of our control."
Staff numbers at the firm grew to 293 from 276 over the year which saw the company's wage bill increase to £7.6m.
The firm is owned by Harold Montgomery and family who this year were named in the Sunday Times Rich List for Northern Ireland with a net worth of £113m.
It is part of the family controlled Ballyvesey Holdings Group which is headquartered in Doncaster.
Other transport companies in the north owned by the group include East-West Transport, Dukes Transport (Craigavon) and JE Coulter.
Its turnover increased last year by 13 per cent to £591m.
Group operating profit however fell by 23 per cent to £5.2m.
As a whole, the group employs around 2,600 people.
