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Registered number:
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
COMPANY INFORMATION
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONTENTS
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
GROUP STRATEGIC REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
The Directors present their Strategic Report incorporating the business review, which includes the principal risks and uncertainties of the business and key performance indicators.
The Directors aim to present a balanced and comprehensive review of the development and performance of the business during the year and its position at the year end. The review is consistent with the size and nature of the business and is written in the context of risks and uncertainties faced.
Group turnover in the year amounted to £17,753,992 (2024 - £16,123,325) with overall operating profit amounting to £1,259,313 (2024 - £384,176) and profit before tax amounting to £1,358,388 (2024 - £473,389). Included in the operating profit and profit before tax for the year was a gain of £949,826 (2024 - £Nil) relating to the revaluation of Group's properties. The Group's trading activities continue to be primarily undertaken by Welch’s Transport Limited, a subsidiary undertaking. The increase in turnover resulted from several large distribution contract wins during the year. The restructuring of the sales and business development function mentioned in last year’s report continues to produce results with further contracts already won in 2026. This is particularly pleasing given that the market was, and continues to be, generally flat and highly competitive. Large contract wins tend to have heavy onboarding costs and take a period to settle down before profits start to flow, which should be reflected in 2026 results. The Group's motor trade activities also saw an increase in turnover from an expanding customer base albeit limited by the Group's ability to recruit additional technicians, a common problem in the sector currently. Customer service levels, measured by objective KPI’s, remained strong and the Group continues to enjoy the benefit of the investment in the Traffic, Dealer and Warehouse Management System implemented in previous years. Capital expenditure on vehicles and trailers remained consistent during the year and in line with the Group's vehicle replacement policies. The refurbishment programme also continued as planned. Trailer prices continue to fall back from the previously inflated levels as do truck prices. Lead times are the lowest that they have been since the pandemic and ‘stock’ vehicles are readily available to purchase. The businesses road to net zero continues with the third EV deployed during the year and with another three on order for delivery in Q2/Q3 2026. The six bay hyper chargers with 1 Mw dedicated supplies will be operational at the Bedford and Duxford depots by the end of Q3 2026, which will future proof both depots for the energy transition that is to come over the next few years. The Group's 75% owned subsidiary undertaking, JPS Installs Limited, had another difficult year and the decision was taken by the Directors to close this business early in 2026. TBM Fulfilment Solution UK Ltd, the Group’s 50% owned e-commerce and fulfilment business, settled into bigger premises and is now well placed for significant growth in the coming years. Whilst the Directors are aware that any plans for future development of the business may be subject to unforeseen events outside of their control, particularly given the performance of the current administrations both at home and in America, they view the coming year with guarded confidence.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
GROUP STRATEGIC REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
The Group has for many years believed that outright ownership of its asset base and avoiding any form of borrowing is in its best interests and, other than the occasional modest loan for the purchase of property, intends to continue with this policy. As such the Group has little exposure to financial, credit or interest rate risk. The loosening of the capping of Business Property Relief is welcome and has removed an element of the financial burden that the principal shareholders faced at a personal level.
The industries that the business operates in can be dangerous, but the Group believes that its systems, processes and general culture limit these risks as far as possible. External consultants support the management team in continually promoting a proactive approach to Health and Safety in all areas of the business. The Group’s Quality and Environmental management system continue to be externally accredited to the ISO 9001 and 14001 standards. The transport depots support the voluntary Freight Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) with the Cambridge location currently accredited to the silver standard whilst the St Ives depot is accredited to the gold standard.
The Directors consider that the key financial performance indicators are those that communicate the financial performance and strength of the Group as a whole, these being turnover, operating profit, cash balances and return on capital employed.
The Directors consider the main other key performance indicators are the delivery performance, compliance, utilisation and productivity of its transport operations, which are monitored daily, and a range of criteria on the motor trade side of the business, which are regularly reviewed by our franchise partners.
This report was approved by the Board of Directors and signed on its behalf.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
DIRECTORS' REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
The Directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025.
The principal activity of the Company was that of an investment holding company.
The profit for the year, after taxation and minority interests, amounted to £897,099 (2024 - £341,295).
An interim dividend of £Nil (2024 - £6,000) was paid in the year on the Ordinary B shares. The Directors do not recommend the payment of a final dividend (2024 - £Nil)
The Directors who served during the year and to the date of this report were:
The Group maintains insurance, as permitted by Section 233 of the Companies Act 2006, for its Directors against liabilities incurred in relation to the companies within the Group.
The Directors are responsible for preparing the Group Strategic Report, the Directors' Report and the consolidated financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
In preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to:
∙select suitable accounting policies for the Group's financial statements and then apply them consistently;
∙make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and
∙prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company and the Group will continue in business.
The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Group's and the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and the Group and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
DIRECTORS' REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
The Directors intend to continue to grow all areas of the business in the foreseeable future.
The Group has exposures to two main areas of risk - liquidity risk and credit risk. To a lesser extent the Group is exposed to interest rate risk. The most significant financial risks to which the Group is exposed are described below:
Liquidity risk The Group seeks to manage financial risk by ensuring sufficient liquidity is available to meet foreseeable needs. The Group expects to meet its financial obligations through its operating cash flows. In the event that its operating cash flows are insufficient to cover all of the Group's financial obligations, short term flexibility could be obtained from third parties. Credit risk The Group’s principal financial assets are cash and trade debtors, with the main credit risk arising from its trade debtors. The Group manages credit risk by conducting thorough credit assessments for new and existing customers, setting appropriate credit limits, and continuously monitoring creditworthiness. Credit limits are reviewed on a regular basis in conjunction with debt aging and collection history. Interest rate risk The Group is not exposed to significant interest rate fluctuations as it has no third-party borrowings.
Subsequent to the year end, JPS Installs Limited, a subsidiary undertaking, ceased to trade. The decision for the subsidiary undertaking to cease to trade was made by the Directors following a review of the subsidiary undertaking’s financial position and future prospects. All operational activities have now ceased, and the subsidiary undertaking is in the process of settling its outstanding liabilities and realising any remaining assets. No adjustments have been made to the amounts recognised in these consolidated financial statements as a result of this event.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
DIRECTORS' REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
Our auditor, Peters Elworthy & Moore, transferred their audit registration and therefore that part of their business to a newly incorporated company, PEM Audit Limited, on 1 September 2025. Accordingly, Peters Elworthy & Moore ceased to be the Company’s auditor with the Directors duly appointing PEM Audit Limited to fill the vacancy arising.
The auditor, PEM Audit Limited, will be proposed for reappointment in accordance with Section 485 of the Companies Act 2006.
This report was approved by the Board of Directors and signed on its behalf.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
We have audited the financial statements of Welch's Group Holdings Limited (the 'Parent Company') and its subsidiaries (the 'Group') for the year ended 31 December 2025, which comprise of the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Company Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity, the Company Statement of Changes in Equity, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows, and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group's or the Parent Company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our Auditor's Report thereon. The Directors are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
∙the information given in the Group Strategic Report and the Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
∙the Group Strategic Report and the Directors' Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Group and the Parent Company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Group Strategic Report or the Directors' Report.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditor's Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these consolidated financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
∙the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate, competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
∙we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the Group through discussions with the Directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the haulage, transport and furniture distribution and installation sectors;
∙we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct effect on the financial statements or the operations of the Group, including the Companies Act 2006 and taxation legislation;
∙in addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations which do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which might be fundamental to the Group’s ability to operate or to avoid material penalty;
∙we made enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
∙we assessed the susceptibility of the Group's financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur; and
∙laws and regulations identified were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
AUDITOR'S RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE AUDIT OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)
As a result of the above risk assessment procedures we identified the greatest risk of material misstatement on the financial statements arising from irregularities and fraud to be within the potential for management to override controls together with the risk of fraudulent revenue recognition. We considered the risk of fraudulent revenue recognition to be most prevalent in the cut-off of revenue. In response to these identified risks, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
∙performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
∙performed audit work over the risk of management override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business;
∙we evaluated the assumptions and judgements used by management within significant accounting estimates and assessed whether these indicated evidence of management bias;
∙we used Audit Data Analytics to review the Group's data for unusual journals; and
∙performed substantive testing for a sample of revenue transactions and assessed whether revenue was recognised in the correct financial period.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
∙agreeing the financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
∙assessment of the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management; and
∙discussing with management, and those charged with governance actual and potential litigation and claims.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the Directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditor's Report.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
This report is made solely to the Company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor's Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
for and on behalf of
Statutory Auditor
Salisbury House
Station Road
CB1 2LA
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER: 01554970
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2025
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER: 01554970
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET (CONTINUED)
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2025
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors and were signed on its behalf by:
The notes on pages 20 to 39 form part of these financial statements.
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER: 01554970
COMPANY BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2025
The profit after tax of the Parent Company for the year was £965,252 (2024 - £224,670).
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WELCH'S GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER: 01554970
COMPANY BALANCE SHEET (CONTINUED)
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2025
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors and were signed on its behalf by:
The notes on pages 20 to 39 form part of these financial statements.
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