A Montrose shipping company has celebrated a near-threefold rise in pre-tax profit.
Rix Shipping (Scotland) Ltd attributed its success for the year to December 2014 to a range of measures across its stevedoring and warehousing activities.
Director James Doyle said there was a capital investment programme in upgrading existing warehouses for lifting gear and steel rope supplier Certex.
He continued: “Other factors were the company’s robust performance aided by investment in new equipment and machinery, and we also attracted new tenants to our facilities on long-term agreements.
“Previous agreements made pre-2014 started to perform in line with expectations, and we had new business wins and diversification into new areas like more bulk storage.”
Mr Doyle said the recruitment of new senior management with general manager Mark Cessford had a positive impact on the business.
The £15 million investment at Montrose port to upgrade quays on both sides of the harbour also helped Rix Shipping and other businesses.
He said: “Any development of this scale at the port is good news for companies like ours.”
He was confident the prospects of Rix Shipping would be further boosted by the group’s spending this year of £1 million on a new 30,000 square feet warehouse and office development.
Replacing the existing building on Meridian Street, it is aimed at firms wanting to take advantage of the town’s strategic position on the North Sea.
Rix Shipping (Scotland)’s main activities are the loading of cereal on to ships for export and the discharge of imported products for loading on to lorries for UK distribution.
Turnover last year rose 20% to £1.496m and the improved trading resulted in gross profit more than doubling to £544,530 and profit before tax leaping almost three times to £351,133.
Rix Shipping (Scotland) has been in Montrose for half a century.
It is part of JR Rix & Sons Ltd whose headquarters are in Hull. It was founded in 1873 by sea captain and merchant adventurer Robert Rix.
The parent group is involved in a large range of activities including fuel distribution, fuel cards, ship owning, stevedoring, warehousing, offshore windfarm support, holiday home manufacturing, car retail and property.
The main activities of the Scottish and English operation are the carriage of petroleum products, carriage of engineers to maintain wind turbines and stevedoring at Hull and Montrose.