LENGTHENING vehicle delivery times had an adverse impact on Autolease's fleet size for the financial year to December 31, 1997. The Birmingham-based leasing and fleet management company saw year-on-year turnover rise by 5% to £98.4 million (1996: £93.5m), but operating profit fell by 9.5% to £6.3 million due to currency translation and a one-off property write-down.

An official statement from parent company Britax International chairman Michael Stoddart, said: 'The overall fleet size declined marginally to 25,543 vehicles reflecting lengthening vehicle delivery times which were some 40% higher than at the end of 1996.' In real terms this meant Autolease took about 800 orders more than it delivered in 1997, with its order bank up 13% on 1996, but its deliveries up just 6%.

Autolease sales director John Given said the supply of new vehicles was easing this year, and praised Volvo for its direct factory order system which enabled most orders to be met within six weeks. Overall, Britax announced pre-tax profits up 24% to £45.4 million on a turnover of £659,313 million.