LEX Vehicle Leasing has announced a jump in pre-tax profits of 12% to more than £38 million. And company executives say they look to this year with confidence, despite an uncertain economic environment.

Lex was ranked fifth in last year's Fleet News FN50 league table of the UK's top leasing companies with a fleet of more than 90,000 vehicles. It announced a pre-tax profit of £38.2m for 2002, up from £34.1m the previous year. This time last year the company announced it had written off all residual value losses for the next three years.

Commenting on last year's performance for its end-of-contract cars, managing director Jon Walden said: 'The market for used cars continues to be soft, although nowhere near as weak as in the year 2000. Our data shows they dropped by about 3%, far better than the cataclysmic events of 2000 when they fell by as much as 10%.

'We continue to be conservative with how we expect residuals to perform. There are still people who think used car prices will boom again but that isn't going to happen. The combination of substantial volumes of new cars in the market and a weaker economy will ensure they stay soft. We had to take our pain a few years ago but we are working our way out of that now.'

Commenting on its annual results, the company said a major highlight of the year was the completion of its new operating system, CLAS, built over the past four years at a cost of £12 million.

A spokesman said: 'The new system provides an integrated platform for managing customers and suppliers, helping to provide differentiated levels of service and reduce costs.'

Other achievements the company cites are the introduction of the Six Sigma customer service programme and the launch of its own Lex Sales Academy, a programme of personal development for sales staff.

Walden said: 'These are a good set of results in a competitive market. We go into 2003 in an optimistic frame of mind.'