The Stobart Group Ltd, the haulage comany operating Eddie Stobart lorries has posted strong performance figures even as it made four acquisitions. The group's pre-tax profits soared to £23.9 million from £3.5 million in a year after making four major acquisitions.

Revenue rose 400 per cent to £431.1 million from £108.8 million after the group took over Chelford-based haulier, James Irlam, rail firm WA Developments, chilled distributor Innovate Logistics and London Southend Airport.

The group said that it planned to exercise its option to acquire Carlisle Airport for £14 million from Stobart Air Holdings, a company controlled by Stobart Group directors Andrew Tinkler and William Stobart.

It said land at the airport would be used to develop a new cross-dock facility and to create a Northern logistics hub to improve the group's multi-modal offering.

Earnings per rose sharply to 7.7p from 2.1p and the conservative 3.3p final  dividend gives a total for the year 6p which according to the group reflected the current banking climate and the difficulties in raising finance.

The group said that instead of paying out cash to shareholders, it would re-invest in ports and airports, whose performance this year has been steady.

According to Stobart chief executive, Andrew Tinkler, the economic climate presented opportunities to make opportunist and strategic acquisitions.

He added that the company's innovative cost model was the key to its continued success. In simple terms the customer only pays for what he needs. If the customer wanted 50 trucks one day and 100 the next the company can deliver because of its size and national reach. He added that the company pooled all the customers and viewed them as one large customer.

He said that the model allowed their own-branded Eddie Stobart trucks to be driven into a customer to drop off and then go to another customer nearby to load up. He added that the key difference was that the company's trucks were planed to avoid empty running.

The group had a net debt of £120.7 million as against £75.2 milion a year earlier which gave a gearing of 29.8 per cent, with the increase mainly in vehicle asset backed finance leases, capital expenditure and acquisitions.

The Stobart Group plc is a logistics company operating in the UK and across Europe, founded by 'Steady' Eddie Stobart. The group started off as an agricultural business in the 1950s in Cumbria . The company was incorporated in the 1970s as a haulage firm which later passed on to Eddie's son, Edward Stobart. The company, has evolved over the years into an intermodal logistics company.

The haulage operation now continues as the Eddie Stobart warehousing and distribution division. The division's distinctive trucks operate in the UK and across Europe upto Kieve in the Ukraine. The expanded group includes Stobart Rail division, handling rail freight and railway infrastructure projects in the UK, the Stobart Ports division which operates a land port and sea port in the north of England, and a property and developments division, Stobart Developments.