Oil price rises in 2018 helped Hull firm Rix Petroleum grow sales by over £20m last year.
The Hull-based firm, one of the oldest family-owned fuel distributors in the UK, hit turnover of £148.9m in 2018 – up from £128.4m in 2017.
Rix Petroleum said despite the price of oil finishing 2018 lower than at the start of the year – the first annual drop for three years – the higher average price over the 12 months had helped sales soar.
Profits before tax passed the £1m mark, in what marked a successful year for Rix Petroleum.
David Evans, a director at the firm, said in a recently-filed accounts: “Sales of petroleum products are seasonal, with the level of demand being dictated to some degree by the weather.
“2018 began with a prolonged period of cold weather which resulted in an increase in sales in the first half of the year, which was offset by the dry harvest when less fuel was sold to the agricultural sector; like for like volume for 2018 was broadly similar to 2017.
“The costs of petroleum products are determined by the price of oil, and the exchange rate of UK sterling against the US dollar.
“Although the price of oil finished the year slightly below where it started, with the first annual drop for three years, the average price for the year was significantly higher, and the net result was a 16 per cent increase in revenue.”
Rix Petroleum is part of the J.R. Rix & Sons group of companies in Hull.
It distributes and sells petroleum from branches across the UK, in areas including Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, the Midlands, the North East and Essex.
Rix has been a family-owned Hull business for more than 140 years, and although its roots lie in the shipping industry, the company has since diversified to a variety of sectors.
Other areas of the Rix business include a sea shuttle service, which transports workers to offshore wind farms in the North Sea, and a heating branch which specialises in supplying oil tanks and boilers.
Rix Petroleum employed over 100 people in 2018.
Looking ahead, the business highlighted cyber security as being an area of focus.
It said: “The company recognises the growing threat of cyber and cyber-enabled fraud, and has measures in place to protect its systems and information from attack.
“It continues to assess and upgrade its procedures and systems as the cyber threat develops and evolves.”
