The Asturian company Alsa, a subsidiary of the British National Express (NX), had revenues of 1,129.3 million euros last year, a record figure in the centenary history of the company and 35.1% higher than that of 2021. It is the first time that Alsa exceeds 1,000 million. The increase in billing occurred despite increased competition from high-speed rail with more operators. The group attributed the improvement in business volume to the increase in mobility, the introduction of Alsa in new countries, the expansion of networks in Morocco and the incorporation of new businesses such as medical transport.
Revenues grew 76% in long distance, 22% in regional coaches and 23% in urban buses. In Morocco they improved by 26%.
The underlying operating profit increased 83.56%, to 103.9 million pounds sterling (117.33 million euros), the highest figure – and by far – of all the multinational’s businesses. The NX group, whose largest shareholder is the Asturian family Cosmen Menéndez-Castañedo, had an underlying operating profit of 197.3 million pounds. An adjustment to Alsa’s goodwill resulted in a non-cash impairment of £261 million, with no business impact.
For its part, the Asturian road freight transport sector increased its turnover by 7.2% in 2022 (to 773.26 million) compared to an improvement of 9.4% in Spain. Even so, the sector has not yet recovered the level of business of 2019, prior to the covid.
The steel industry, with the stoppage of a blast furnace, reduced its traffic in Asturias by 14.3% and the industry as a whole decreased by 4.5%. Those of the primary sector were negative again, while construction, capital goods and coal picked up.
Ovidio de la Roza, president of Asetra, maintained that the fall in demand, which began in the third quarter, has continued in the current one, although he expects that this first semester will be “less bad than what had been announced” for the sector. Added to this is the fact that diesel has not skyrocketed as of February 5, as suspected by the European ban on importing Russian diesel. and that even “something has gone down”. Government aid and measures have alleviated, he said, the situation in the transport sector.