Wincanton pulls off U-turn

Indeed, Wincanton's mainland Europe and loss-making food services businesses are now both gone and, excluding the £23.7m it cost to ditch the latter, pre-tax profit grew to £17.1m - better than the £13m pencilled in by analysts at Investec Securities and up from £14.2m a year ago. The broker now expects adjusted full-year EPS of 17.9p, the same as last year but up 10 per cent on the old forecast.

Moreover, multi-million pound deals with B&Q and Morrisons will have kicked in and there could be more to come. New business won in the period rose 50 per cent and chief executive Eric Born expects much the same in the second half. Underlying operating profit grew 15 per cent at the core contracts logistics division to £20.1m, too, despite a sharp drop in revenue - Wincanton lost Somerfield as a customer when it was taken over by the Co-op last year, and decided not to continue providing logistics for Comet when it changed hands in February. However, volumes from construction and containers remain weak, which knocked profits at the specialist division.