Mainfreight's first quarter result will be much improved on last year, the directors said yesterday.
The company is to announce the result on August 21, but decided to tell the market about general trading conditions earlier in response to what it called "the justified criticisms" of Business Herald columnist Brian Gaynor.
Gaynortook the company to task for saying little about trading conditions at its annual meeting on Wednesday.
The announcement said domestic trading profits should finish ahead of last year because of increased sales.
Looking further ahead, it expected "a flattening of the New Zealand economy, particularly in the provincial areas where growth in the previous year was strong".
Australian results would also be better than last year but were still not expected to be in profit until the third quarter.
International results would be a mixed bag, it said, with a slight fall in New Zealand but much improved in Australia.
The result from associated companies would be positive for the quarter and well ahead of last year, largely because of its American company, CaroTrans.
