Key points:
- Eddie Stobart’s pre-tax loss widened from £0.9 million in 2024 to £24.9 million in 2025.
- Revenue fell by £13.4 million to £543.4 million, because existing customers moved fewer volumes.
- The company swung from a £12.8 million operating profit to a £12.6 million operating loss, mainly due to higher group recharges and fleet hire costs.
- Sister company Great Bear Distribution, also part of Culina Group, made a £13.2 million pre-tax loss.
- Average headcount at Eddie Stobart fell from 3,642 to 3,498.
Eddie Stobart: what the accounts show
Eddie Stobart Limited filed its accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025 at Companies House on 7 October 2026. The key figures are:
- revenue: £543.4 million (2024: £556.8 million),
- operating result: a loss of £12.6 million (2024: a profit of £12.8 million),
- result before tax: a loss of £24.9 million (2024: a loss of £0.9 million),
- result after tax: a loss of £16.9 million (2024: a loss of £1.1 million),
- net assets: £19.9 million (2024: £36.8 million),
- average number of employees: 3,498 (2024: 3,642).
According to the directors, revenue fell by £13.4 million because of a downturn in volumes from existing customers. The swing to an operating loss was mainly caused by significant increases in recharges from the group and higher fleet hire costs.
The company’s cash position also changed. At the end of 2024 it had £8.0 million in cash, while at the end of 2025 it had an overdraft of £4.1 million. Payment terms to suppliers also lengthened: trade payables ageing rose from 24.4 to 35.1 days.
During the year, Eddie Stobart took over assets worth £109.4 million from Culina Asset Management, another company in the group. These included vehicles and equipment, right-of-use assets and finance lease receivables, together with the related lease liabilities.
Great Bear also in the red
Great Bear Distribution filed its own accounts a day later, on 8 October. As trans.info reported, Great Bear went from a £15.3 million profit to a £13.2 million loss before tax, despite revenue of more than £525 million.
Great Bear blamed higher personnel, property and energy costs, lost contracts and underused warehouse space. Its operating profit fell from £41.0 million to £12.3 million.
Together, the two companies generated revenue of more than £1 billion in 2025, but lost around £38 million before tax. A year earlier, they had a combined pre-tax profit of around £14 million.
The losses come at a time of change for the brand. As trans.info has reported, the iconic Eddie Stobart name is set to disappear from European roads.
Part of the Müller group
Both companies belong to Culina Group, which in turn is part of Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller, the international dairy, deli and services group. Their liquidity is managed centrally within the group, and both sets of accounts were signed by the same director, Thierry Held, on 28 September 2026.
Eddie Stobart describes itself as a leading supplier of logistics solutions to UK businesses, covering road, rail and warehousing. Its directors say the company is well funded and financially robust. Culina Group’s forecasts run to December 2027, and the group says it has enough contracted facilities from third parties and within the Müller group.
Eddie Stobart’s priorities are managing central costs and overheads and improving efficiency in its transport network by refocusing on its customer base. In the longer term, the directors say the company will continue to target significant growth in road and rail transport.
The pressures behind the losses
Among the main risks, the directors point to the cost of living, interest rates, inflation that pushed up operating and finance costs, and the difficulty of recruiting drivers and warehouse staff in the UK labour market.
These pressures are not unique to Culina. As trans.info has reported, Britain is running short of new warehouses, while rising fuel costs add to the strain on hauliers. UK diesel averaged 192.5p a litre in September, the highest level since July 2022.
