One of Scotland’s main Claas dealerships – Sellars Agriculture – experienced a 96.5% drop in profits last year.
According to accounts filed with Companies House, the machinery firm reported pre-tax profits of £9,212 for the year ended September 30, 2015.
This is down from pre-tax profits of £263,392 the year before.
Turnover at the Oldmeldrum-based firm also took a tumble to £27.404million, which is down 19% from £33.915million previously.
In the accounts, Sellars said: “The directors are satisfied with the result for the year given the tough conditions in the market. The directors anticipate tough market conditions to continue and are managing costs accordingly.”
Sellars, which also has bases at Forres, Huntly, Cupar, Perth and Letham in Angus, employed 77 staff in the year.
It closed its depot in Newbridge, near Edinburgh, towards the end of 2015 as part of cost-cutting measures as the site was the poorest performing depot in the portfolio.
Managing director, Neil Wattie, said the results reflected the impact of a drop in machinery sales driven by a lack of profitability in the agricultural sector.
“The drop in turnover has a serious impact on the profitability of the business,” said Mr Wattie, who projected turnover in the current financial year to be down by around £6million due to the impact of poor commodity prices and late subsidy payments to farmers.
“It’s worse this year. The late single farm payment has had a massive effect on us,” he added.
The company had taken a lot of steps in the past year, including closing the Newbridge depot, to control costs and Mr Wattie said he was confident the company would at least break even in the current financial year.
“As far as the company is concerned we are sitting with a balance sheet of £3.7million. The plan is to keep the business going and not erode that,” added Mr Wattie.
He said there were no further planned depot closures in the future.
