Tevva insists trucks won’t be delayed

By Carol Millett

Tevva’s struggle to secure additional funding and its decision to cut jobs at the firm will not delay production of its all-electric 7.5-tonne truck, the company told MT this week.

The vehicle is currently in production at the company’s Tilbury plant. Customers include Royal Mail and Travis Perkins. Kinaxia is also set to trial the vehicle.

Concerns about the company’s viability were raised after a winding up petition was issued last month by Ipswich aluminium foundry Hadleigh Castings, for a debt of £84,011.76 for five unpaid invoices. The debt has now been paid and the winding up order withdrawn.

Tevva is also overdue in reporting its financial results and is currently making an unspecified number of redundancies.

Last year the company won a £4.2m grant from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and is currently trying to raise further funding.

A spokesman said: “The external environment remains challenging for our industry, and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve operational efficiencies to safeguard longterm success.

“We are close to securing additional funding and expect to make an announcement in the next few weeks.”

He added that Tevva is producing “several hundred trucks this year, all of them with customers already or waiting”.

Last week the company revealed it had been contacted by US officials. Subsidies are currently available to clean tech firms prepared to move their production to the US, under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

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The Haulage Group also pleaded guilty to breaching the same Act and was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,300.

 Hertfordshire-based Eco Waste and Recycling has been fined £30,000 after an employee was run over by a telehandler and had their leg amputated. The company was also ordered to pay £3,102.50 in costs.

Wincanton reports record full-year profit

Wincanton has reported a year of ‘profitable growth and strategic progress’ against what it called a ‘challenging external environment’.

The logistics giant also announced a reorganisation of its transport operations to focus on dedicated open book networks and 4PL activities. The move is aimed at creating ‘a more efficient, profitable, digitally enabled service offering’, despite restructuring and associated impairment charges of £19.5m.

Results for the financial full-year ended 31 March 2023 showed revenue increased by 2.9% to £1,462m and underlying profit before tax increased 6.9% to £62.1m, a record result. The total dividend for the year was raised 10% to 13.2p.

Major new business wins were secured across all four of the group’s sectors, with significant contract renewals also agreed with longstanding customers including Sainsbury’s, Waitrose & Partners, Wickes and Halfords.

A trading update said that while challenging economic conditions are expected to continue in the new financial year, Wincanton forecasts results for FY24 in line with market expectations.