THE owner of Ayrshire haulage-to-construction firm Maxi Group took a 300% pay rise last year in preparation for retirement, possibly in three years' time.
Gerry Atkinson, 60, will eventually hand over the reins to sons Richard and Douglas, but stressed he has no immediate plans to step down.
In the year to September 30, Atkinson paid himself (pounds) 651,000, up from (pounds) 157,000 the previous year. He also received company pension contributions of (pounds) 250,000, the same as 2002.
Atkinson said: ''In the past I have not taken as much money out of the business as other people in similar (firms). Over the next three years I will get a bonus over and above what I have typically received, so that I will have the option to retire at that point.''
Brought up in Hull, Atkinson, a chartered builder by profession, came to Irvine in the mid-1970s to work on the Volvo bus assembly plant. He later took over one of Volvo's subcontracted haulage firms and made it the bedrock of a business which has since grown steadily.
Today, Maxi Haulage is one of the UK's biggest private haulage companies, with about 160 trucks, based mainly at English depots. Volvo remains a major customer.
Maxi Warehousing has several hundred thousand square feet of space, mainly at Irvine and Bellshill, while Maxi Construction builds and restores commercial and industrial buildings. The diversified group, which employs more than 300, also includes Elliotts bar and restaurant on Glasgow's Bath Street.
Discounting the impact of higher directors' pay, Maxi managed to boost margins last year, following management changes and cost-cutting in its core haulage business.
The firm posted a pre-tax surplus of (pounds) 573,000, a like-
for-like increase of 24% on 2002. Turnover edged up to (pounds) 26.6m, from (pounds) 26m the previous year.
Atkinson said Maxi intends to build a new group headquarters at Tournament Park, Irvine, the 75-acre former Volvo site which the firm acquired two years ago.
The construction side of the business is currently quiet, he added, because the company has taken a strategic decision to stop tendering for low-margin projects. That has led to a fall in turnover, but he expects income to pick up again when the division begins work on new in-house schemes.
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