KEY POINTS:
A month after a truck protest disrupted cities around the country the owner of one of the biggest truck fleets in the country has reported a strong profit.
Mainfreight reported a net profit after tax and before abnormals of $8.22 million in the three months to June 30, up 40.7 per cent from the same period last year.
Earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 39.2 per cent to $16.56 million.
"This improved performance came from our operations in New Zealand and the United States of America," the company said.
But profits were down in Australia as costs were incurred to put a growth strategy in place.
The company's New Zealand domestic division notched up a 17.9 per cent increase in revenue in the quarter from a year ago and the company said it increased market share.
Of the $11.5m in increased revenue, $5.81m was from new customers.
"While established customer tonnage trades at similar levels to the prior period, this increased market share has provided good growth during challenging economic conditions," the company said.
Margins were in line with last year.
The statement came after thousands of truck operators stopped traffic in cities and towns around the country in July to protest against rising costs and poor notification of an increase in road user charges.
Mainfreight has been expanding strongly into the United States and Asia.
Mainfreight USA and CaroTrans reported revenues for the period of US$79.66m ($113m), and a combined Ebitda of US$3.63m.
Revenues in Asia improved 33.4 per cent to US$3.84m and Ebitda was in line with the previous period at US$0.45m.
The company said trading in July and August has been in line with last year.
"We remain cautiously optimistic about our performance for the remainder of the year," Mainfreight said.
- NZPA
