Edinburgh-based Menzies Distribution Group said 2023 was ‘transformational’, with a reshaped business now more focused on the longer term, writes Chris Tindall.
It reported revenues for the year ending 31 December of £1,215.6m, up slightly from £1213.9m in 2022. Profit before tax fell to £7.8m compared to £12.5m in the previous year, but the group said a diversification strategy in partnership with European firm InPost, which purchased a 30% stake in 2023, had secured a long-term sustainable route to market for printed news and magazines.
It said InPost had the largest parcel locker network across the UK, with more than 6,400 automated parcel machines and 1,450 pick up and drop off points.
“Our new partnership and combined investment will enable both groups to collaborate on an exclusive basis across the UK, leveraging Menzies’ national logistics capability and InPost’s automated parcel machine work, providing British consumers with a secure, cost effective and environmentally sustainable way of sending and receiving parcels in Europe’s largest e-commerce market,” it said in a report.
The group’s newstrade division saw revenue fall £14.8m to £919.4m and it said a 6.1% decline in newspaper and magazine revenues reflected the structural volume decline of printed news.
However, it said a notable success in this division was securing publisher agreements to 2029 in more than 90% of its revenues, providing certainty of more than £4bn between now and then.
Revenues in Menzies Distribution Service (MDS) increased by £21.4m to £233.8m and it said it had added new customers during the period, combining full load transport and warehouse storage as a single product value proposition.
Its Express division was reshaped into what it said was now a leaner organisation, which led to the group closing Menzies Parcels at the end of February and exiting several unprofitable contracts.
“These decisions are always carefully weighted and deliberated but, given the historic losses and the opportunity to move the business in a new direction, focusing on the attractive growth of the out of home delivery sector across the UK, there was no alternative but to progress with the restructure,” it added.
