Freight forwarder Xpediator felt the impact of Covid-19 on the first half of its financial year, as turnover dipped, but said that trading was ‘getting close to normal’ as economies emerged from lockdown.

Turnover in the six months to 30 June at Xpediator fell to £99.6 million (2019: £102.4 million) while pre-tax profit rose to £2.1million (2019: £2 million) .

Chairman Alex Borrelli said: “These results show a resilient performance and demonstrate that there has been good demand for our services both in the UK and on the continent despite the impact of Covid-19.

Turnover its its Freight Forwarding division increased 2.2% to £78.4 million (2019: £76.7 million); Transport Solutions saw turnover drop 19.8% to £2.5 million (2019: £3.1 million) while in Logistics and Warehousing turnover decreased by 16.9% to £18.7 million (H1 2019: £22.6 million).

“Where business units have been impacted by the pandemic, the effect is largely temporary and since the half-year trading across all three divisions is getting close to normal,” said Borrelli.

“That said, the group is still mindful that a second wave of Covid- 19 remains a possibility and we continue to review our contingency plans.” 

Borrelli also pointed to circa £500,000 of cost savings made in March, which he said would be maintained as annualised savings and would feed through to an improvement in operating profit.