Wincanton, a logistics and distribution specialist, hopes to improve after a dismal year saw £20 million operating profit fall to just £3 million.

The company which includes Tesco's, GlaxoSmithKline and BAE Systems as its customers, said that they had transported less due to the economy and would now look to the UK public sector for new contracts.

The UK public sector, which has billions of pounds worth of contracts available to outsource is looking to companies like Wincanton.

The group also maintained its progressive dividend at 14.91 p.

Graeme McFaull, Group Chief Executive expects this year to improve, strongly emphasising the group's consistent cash flow thoughout its history - in a statement on the Group's website he said that Wincanton had performed 'robustly'.

"Wincanton has been and is expected to remain a consistently strong cashflow business." he said.

The shares which are 'buy' with JP Morgan Cazenove rose 1.78 pence on the announcement.

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