Rentokil Has 2010 Loss on City Link Delivery Unit

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Rentokil Initial Plc, the world’s largest pest-control company, posted a loss for 2010 after snow in the U.K. hurt turnaround efforts at the City Link parcel- delivery unit.

The net loss was 23.4 million pounds ($37.8 million) compared with net income of 47.6 million pounds in 2009, Rentokil said today in a statement. City Link’s adjusted operating loss, excluding currency effects, widened to 9.4 million pounds from 5.6 million pounds.

Rentokil Chief Executive Officer Alan Brown took over City Link’s day-to-day operations in December in a bid to stem losses at the division. He replaced Stuart Godman, who was the second City Link manager to leave in 18 months. Snow that disrupted traffic in Britain late last year hampered Rentokil’s efforts to return the business to profit.

“City Link’s operational inefficiencies are expected to be addressed by October 2011, but financial delivery will be weak until then,” Brown said in today’s statement.

Revenue fell to 2.5 billion pounds from 2.53 billion pounds, the company said.