Haulage boss Eddie Anderson, who runs Aberdeen firm ARR Craib, said yesterday uncertainty over Brexit had potentially cost his business new work worth many millions of pounds.
Two projects have been put on the shelf as a result of ongoing concerns about Britain’s future outside the European Union, with one of them worth up to £5million and the other “a couple of million”, he added.
“Nobody knows what is going to happen after Brexit,” Mr Anderson said, adding: “It is already having a negative impact on my business.”
Mr Anderson, owner and chief executive at Dyce-based ARR Craib, said mainland European customers were no longer interested in doing business in UK pounds, insisting on euros, in a further sign of changed trade relations.
He was speaking after accounts from Companies House showed his firm suffered a fall in pre-tax profits to £1.05million during the year to March 31, 2016, from £1.39million in 2014/15.
Turnover was down by more than £4.5million at £43.49million as ARR Craib – like so many other north-east businesses – felt the impact of the oil and gas downturn.
Mr Anderson said: “It was a difficult year but, with a lot of hard work, we still managed to make a profit and keep our head above water.
“I’m extremely satisfied with the performance, given it’s been a very difficult market in Aberdeen.
“This year is likely to be fairly similar but we are starting to get good feedback that 2017/18 should be better.”
Mr Anderson said ARR Craib had “cut its cloth” under the circumstances, with a slight reduction in the workforce .
But widespread redundancies were avoided, with most of the contraction the result of natural turnover, he added.
ARR Craib operates more than 200 vehicles and 500 trailers.
According to its accounts, the firm employed 380 people on average during 2015/16 across its operations in Aberdeen, Cumbernauld, Stockport and Great Yarmouth. This was down from 413 a year earlier.
The company’s origins can be traced back to the 1970s, when George Craib and Aberdeen Road Runners operated as independent providers of haulage and courier services to the paper and oil and gas industries. The firms merged in 1983 to form ARR Craib Transport.
Mr Anderson became a shareholder a few years later and, working in partnership with Mr Craib, a period of rapid growth and gradual diversification followed.
Mr Craib retired in 2008 after nearly 50 years in the industry, and Mr Anderson, who had initially invested just a few thousand pounds, took full control of the business in a buyout worth several million.
