The consumer and food section of Christian Salvesen is propping up the famous logistics firm, which has issued its third profits warning in four months.

Shares in the company fell 4.5p to 94.5p on April 8, as the latest prophecy of doom flashed up on City traders' computer screens.

Christian Salvesen is heavily involved with fresh produce, but it is the engineering and industrial side of the business that has fallen from grace as UK manufacturing continues to suffer from a two-tier economy.

Business in the consumer and food sector of the firm remained stable.

With the damage reduced by an eager food sector overall company profits are expected to dip £10.3 million from last year's total to £29m this year.