Stobart sees new business driving growth

The company, whose Eddie Stobart trucks are a common site on Britain's motorways, said it traded in line with its expectations in the first half to end August, and is significantly ahead of the same period last year.

"We expect continued growth in the second half as new contracts start to deliver, whilst the economic environment remains challenging," it said in a statement.

It said it was developing new routes with customers in its rail freight business, but uncertainty over government spending meant demand for its rail engineering services from state-owned rail infrastructure company Network Rail was flat.

Analysts expect the company, which also had a ports business and is developing Southend Airport in south-east England, to report full-year pretax profit of 35.2m, up from 29.3m a year earlier.