A DISTRIBUTION, freight and storage company is eyeing acquisitions after moving banks and sealing a new financing deal.
Gordon Leslie Group, which is based at Hillington Park in Glasgow, has consolidated a number of long-term loans it held into a new £4.4 million agreement with Clydesdale Bank.
Managing director Craig Leslie confirmed the business had more working capital to work with and had also managed to reduce its annual financing payments.
It had previously banked with Royal Bank of Scotland.
Mr Leslie said: "We had three different term loans running with different rates and term. It occurred to me that with the company quite settled there was an opportunity to do some consolidating.
"By pulling off the loans and restructuring them it did free quite a bit of cash which allowed us to reduce our day-to-day borrowing.
"We were able to take the new loan over a longer period which gives us a bit more breathing space. That in itself will generate a bit more working capital as we are paying less annually."
The company was founded more than 40 years ago and initially was a haulier with a large client base in the wines and spirits sector.
When founder Gordon Leslie retired in 1996 the business was taken over by French company Geodis.
Craig Leslie, the founder's son, took over as managing director before leaving in 2004.
He subsequently re-acquired the company name and started it again from scratch, with a fleet of just four vehicles.
A decade later it now operates 25 trucks. Mr Leslie said turnover in the year to the end of September 2013 came in at around £6m and he is expecting a figure of up to £6.5m in the current trading year.
Part of that growth may involve taking over another business which could be easily bolted on to existing operations.
He said: "We have a fairly open mind on [buying] other companies in the warehousing or logistics sector.
"It would be local. So [it would be] something in central Scotland rather than abroad or in England and similar types of business in the same area [that we operate in]."
George Leslie Group is also investing in the IT systems in its warehouses as well as making improvements to the properties it owns.
Mr Leslie said he is hopeful of adding to the 50 people the business employs, with any increase in staff numbers likely to be in the warehousing operation.
At its warehouses the business stores a range of wines and spirits, including whisky, as well as other commodities, engineering equipment, confectionery and food.
One of its major customers is the drinks industry wholesaler London City Bond, which rents part of one of the George Leslie Group's warehouses.
The lease there was recently extended from three to 13 years.
London City Bond's clients include Fortnum and Mason and The Whisky Exchange.
Robert Gibson, head of the Clydesdale's centre for regional business and private banking in the west of Scotland, said: "Gordon Leslie Group has established an excellent reputation across the logistics sector.
"Its continued success is testament to the experience and expertise of Craig and his management team."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article