TWO of the north’s most prominent transport and logistics firms have reported record profits for 2022.
New accounts for McCulla show it recorded a 35.5% uplift in turnover to £44.3m last year, helping the Lisburn-based cold-storage haulier post a 62% increase in profit before tax of £5.1m.
Last year was even stronger for the McBurney Group, with turnover increasing 25% year-on-year to £144m, with profit before tax surging 65% to just under £19m.
The strength of the business was clearly a factor in the Danish shipping giant DFDS announcing a deal to buy the business in December 2022, completing the £138m transaction in February 2023.
Senior figures from both McCulla and McBurney Transport rose to public attention in recent years, becoming prominent voices in the discussion and debate around the post-Brexit trading arrangements for goods crossing the Irish Sea.
“The Northern Ireland Protocol for us as a company has been a complete disaster,” McBurney’s Paul Jackson told the House of Lords 12 months ago.
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Writing in one of several opinion pieces published in the media over the past year, McCulla’s now former managing director, Peter Summerton, warned the UK Government “completely underestimated the challenge presented by the Windsor Framework”.
It’s understood Mr Summerton has since departed McCulla to take on a new role with DFDS with a lower public profile.
While the new trading arrangements have involved logistics firms like McCulla taking on new costs to hire new staff and establish its own customs facility, it has also created new opportunities.
Supermarket chain Iceland responded to the new regulatory landscape by signing a storage and services deal with McCulla last year to supply its 37 Northern Ireland stores.
In recent weeks McCulla submitted plans to expand its cold storage warehouse at Mallusk from 68,000 sq ft to 115,000 sq ft.
The expansion has been valued at around £6m by industry monitor CIS Ireland.
McCulla also has planning approval to expand its Blaris cold store base in Lisburn.
In a report published with its latest accounts, the directors of McCulla described the period after the introduction of the Protocol in January 2021 as “an extremely challenging environment”.
But they said the learning and response “provided a solid foundation for a successful year in 2022”.
Commenting on the post-2022 period, including the new green and red lane system introduced in October 2023, McCulla’s directors said they remain “guardedly optimistic” on the economic outlook.
“There has been some disruption during 2022 and 2023 that has seen some capacity exit the sector.
“This has led to new opportunities for the group and with the Windsor Framework creating a further tightening of rules around the movement of goods, the directors believe that the group is well positioned to avail of new opportunities that will present themselves as the rules are implemented.”
The new accounts show McBurney added 39 staff in 2022, expanding its workforce to 851, while McCulla increased its workforce by eight to 278.
