£36m DX Group Essington headquarters could open next year

DX Group aims to have its £36 million new centre open by next summer on 44 acres in Hobnock Road.

The former Nightfreight business aims to transfer staff from its two existing sites in Willenhall.

But it faces fierce opposition from local people to the planning application it has submitted to South Staffordshire Council.

The proposal has yet to be decided on by the council, which is waiting for information from the firm on how the hub will impact the surrounding roads.

But in its latest half-year report the company said: "Plans have progressed well since signing the conditional purchase agreement in May 2015 and we have recently submitted a revised planning application."

It has also sealed a deal with an unnamed development partner for the funding and construction of the new hub, which will see DX Group lease the site for 25 years.

"We expect the new site to open in late summer/autumn 2017. There will then be a phased relocation of existing hub operations with a view to the project being fully complete and operational within the next 24 months," said the company.

Meanwhile DX has delivered a half year loss of £87.1 million, hit by an £88.4m impairment charge against the company's goodwill value, which reflects "the challenging industry conditions and the decline in profits". Before the impairment charge, its pre-tax profits were down to just £1.3 million compared to £9.9m for the first half of last year.

The company issued a profits warning in November over problems with its DX Exchange business, which led to a slump in its shaare value.

Revenues for the half year were down four per cent to £141.6m.

Chief executive Petar Cvetkovic said: "These disappointing results directly reflect the specific trading pressures outlined last November.

"Although market conditions remain difficult, we have completed the managed exit of a number of unattractive contracts and have seen our sales team start to secure attractive new contracts. In addition, we continue to make steady progress with our strategic OneDX programme including our plans to develop our new central hub."

One of the big problems facing the parcel, freight and mail delivery company, he said, was the high cost of finding drivers, which added £2.8 million to its operating costs over the six months.

There was an industry-wide shortage of qualified drivers, which meant DX Group had not been able to make full use of its own vehicle fleet and had to rely on more expensive third party sub-contractors. "It has also led to an increase in salaries for current and new drivers".