A logistics giant headquartered in Manchester added almost 80 jobs during its latest financial year as its turnover surged by more than £330m, it has been revealed.
Cardinal Global Logistics has posted a turnover of £462.7m for 2021, up from £128.1m in 2020, according to newly-filed documents with Companies House.
The accounts also show the group's pre-tax profits also spikes at £41.3m, a rise from £7.9m.
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The number of people employed by Cardinal Global Logistics during the year increased from 300 to 379.
A statement signed off by the board said: "The Cardinal Maritime Group continued to grow in 2021 [with] the acquisition of Candour Logistics Ltd (Now Far Logistics Warrington Ltd) in December 2020 being the biggest impact but also establishing offices in Bangkok and Hanoi supporting Asia expansion and the investment in Seabridge Australia and New Zealand expanding our global reach.
"The group was impacted throughout the year with capacity in the market reduced and increasing freight rates which are expected to remain high until 2023.
"New entrants have entered the market chartering vessels but reliability of service has been difficult to maintain.
"The group continued to be impacted by the Covid-19 global pandemic in the year.
"Whilst UK business have in large part returned to normal, the impacts of the global crisis are still impacting on the industry as a whole, with Asia offices in particular still having to cope with lockdowns and quarantine.
"Investment in IT and the diligence of staff has meant we have remained operational throughout the disruption."
The group added that the sharp rise in its turnover was "driven largely by the inflated freight rates in the market, added to the continued M&A activity".
Group CEO Brian Hay said: "Freight rates have now started to soften which is welcome news for our clients and the industry generally.
"We are anticipating that freight rates will stabilise, for a period, at around $5,000 per 40’ container from Asia.
"Whilst this is still quite considerable higher than pre-pandemic levels, it’s a marked reduction on the peak experienced during the early part of this year."
He added: ""e are seeing a marginal fall in volume activity, at 4.5% against forecasted volumes, which is largely because of changing consumer behaviour and high stock volumes.
"However, the diverse nature of our client base, supported by our international footprint, means the business has an in-built resilience and agility to be able to combat any U.K. oriented downturn.
"Indeed, because our product offering is highly engineered around providing aggregate and competitive pricing solutions for our clients, renewed focus on pricing across the industry will likely be complimentary to our plan."
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