News / 'Significant redundancies' as another UK truck firm enters insolvency

Image: Youngs Fleet Gallery

Another large UK haulier has begun administration proceedings as the latest casualty in a series of trucking company bankruptcies.  

On 31 January, UK law firm Leonard Curtis was appointed the administrator of Youngs Transportation and Logistics Limited, which had acquired Northwest Cargo in 2020. 

The two companies employed 250 people and operated across five sites in the south east, south coast and north west of the UK. The combined turnover stood at over £40m with more than 100 vehicles in operation. Youngs has been operating for more than 50 years. 

Leonard Curtis said it has been able to secure a sale for one of the company’s sites in the north west, protecting a small number of jobs. However, two other sites are to be shut down with “significant redundancies”. 

In its 2021 full year accounts, Youngs had debts of £8.3m falling due within one year, and a further £700,000 after one year, but it only had £166,000 in cash.  

In September 2023, it registered a “charge” with Bibby Financial Services, using all its owned land and buildings as a security. A ‘charge’ is the security a company gives for a loan. 

One administrator appointed to the case, Alex Cadwallader, described the situation facing the haulage sector as troubling.  

“We expect the UK logistics market to remain a challenging trading environment throughout Q1 and Q2 of 2024,” he said. 

Managing director UK and Ireland of transportation and logistics company XPO, Dan Myers, told The Loadstar: “It’s going to be incredibly tough, particularly as we go through this first quarter, because the first quarter is one of the quietest from a volumes perspective. 

“You come at a peak where there’s much more volume and people tend to be busier, and then you come into the slower months, which is this month, next month, and as cash goes out of the business and there’s not the cash coming in the business, ultimately that’s when businesses are going to become insolvent. I suspect it’s going to be tough.” 

A potential recession creating consumer reluctancy to spend has meant that demand is down. This low demand plus rising overhead costs and fuel prices saw 463 UK haulage companies facing the same fate as Youngs last year.  

Mr Myers concluded: “It’s going to be a tough year because the capacity is still there. I mean it’s like any market – It’s a supply and demand, and clearly there’s too much capacity in the market.” 

“It’s not a high margin industry, you’ve got to work incredibly hard to make a reasonable return when the economy is not great. I mean ultimately as a distributor – we move what gets consumed. So therefore, if there’s not the demand, then there’s not the volume moving through the supply chain. We’re the barometer of the economy.”