"We've definitely turned a corner and all the blood
sweat and tears of the past seven months have started to unravel all the bad
work that was done before. It shows the market that our plan is starting to
work; we're paying down debt and the business is turning around," said
Paperlinx executive director Andrew Price. According to the merchanting group's figures, profits across its operations
in Asia, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand grew by more than a third, however
the company continued to be hamstrung by its European operations, which account
for just over 70% of its revenue. To the year ending 30 June 2013, sales at the firm's
European operations dipped by 16% to A$1.9bn, compared with A$2.3bn in the
previous year, which the company blamed on declining demand. However, European
losses ballooned from A$23.6m to A$34.3m. In the UK, which accounts for around
30% of Paperlinx's global revenues, Price said the recovery was "full
steam ahead". “We're bringing back some serious volume. Margin is key
though and we've got to do some work on that - that's going to be our focus
going forward," added Price.
In a statement, the chief executive Dave Allen said that
Paperlinx's ongoing restructuring, which has been largely focused on its
European operations and cost A$26m in the past year, was expected to deliver
A$35m-A$40m of savings annually from next year. He added that the Australian group
was confident that the business would be "marginally profitable" in
its 2014 full-year results.
