Universal Salvage reported a drop in pre-tax profit from £6.6m last year to £6.5m in its preliminary annual results, announced today.
The group has proposed a final dividend of 3.8p per share, up from 3.1p in 2000.
The earnings per share decreased by 4% to 16.2p, compared to 16.9p in 2001, while net assets increased by 23% to £24.3 million, up from £19.7m in 2001.
Chairman Alexander Foster commented: "Despite a disappointing final quarter, the group's trading results for the year show an improvement on last year, with underlying pre-tax profits rising by 8.6% to £7.1m and gross margins improving.
The group commented that the mixed results in part follow Direct Line's termination of its contract.
"More significantly, in the final quarter, we were unexpectedly given notice by our largest motor insurance customer [Direct Line] of its intention to terminate its contract with the company. We are obviously disappointed by this development and instructions of vehicles will cease at the end of June. Although this sets us back in the short term, we remain very confident of replacing the lost business and then increasing the volume of vehicles we handle," Foster said.
Universal Salvage is the UK's largest vehicle salvage and services group.
