U.S. exceptional charges hit Tibbett & Britten’s results

U.S. exceptional charges hit Tibbett & Britten’s results    Exceptional charges on its U.S. activities forced Tibbett & Britten Group plc, the U.K.-based international logistics service provider, to report a 14-percent fall in its operating profit for the first six months of the year to '9.8 million ($15 million).
   The British group said the lower profit was mainly the result of “the write-off of unamortized costs associated with the Safeway Inc. contract being taken in-house in California,” and charges on the outstanding receivable with a former U.S. customer now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
   “Both events are one-offs,” the group added.
   Breaking down its results by region, Tibbett & Britten reported that its Americas activities suffered a '1.1 million ($2 million) loss in the first half of this year, as compared to a profit of '5.6 million for the same period in 2002. Revenue in the Americas rose to '306.1 million ($481 million) from '300 million in the first half of 2002.
   The group’s U.K. and Ireland activities nearly tripled their profits in the latest half-year period to '9.5 million ($15 million) from '3.2 million. Revenue from this region increased to '305.2 million ($479 million) from '295.8 million.
   The mainland Europe region produced a profit of '1.3 million ($2 million) in the first half of this year, down from '2.4 million last year, as revenues jumped to '133 million ($209 million) from '105.6 million.
   Other international activities broke even in the first half of the year.
   “Notwithstanding events in the Middle East and the recent SARS virus in Asia, revenues in our international operations (outside Europe and the Americas) increased by 33 percent to '46.9 million,” the company said. “In China, our joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa is doing very well, serving both multinational and Chinese retailers and consumer product manufacturers.”
   Tibbett & Britten reported first-half worldwide revenues from continuing operations of '791.2 million ($1.2 billion), up 7 percent from the same period in 2002.
   The British logistics group said it is negotiating the purchase of “at least 83 percent” of Vfw, a reverse logistics service provider in Germany. Vfw operates in the returnable packaging business, specializing in the retail pharmacy sector. It has annual revenues of 29 million euros ($31 million) and makes an operating profit of 3.9 million euros ($4 million).
   Tibbett & Britten said the company would provide “a good platform to develop our wider reverse logistics capabilities for retailers.”