City File: Christian Salvesen

CHRISTIAN SALVESEN will terminate its loss-making contract to distribute the products of Unilever's huge German frozen food and ice-cream subsidiary, Langnese Iglo, next month. When the contract was awarded five years ago, Salvesen saw it as the prelude to big expansion in Germany. That failed to materialise, and Langnese also changed the mix of its business, leading to heavy losses for the distributor.

The termination of the contract should help the distribution, power plant hire and brick-making group make record profits in the year to 31 March, 1993, of pounds 75m (up from pounds 67m). A further boost to pounds 85m in 1994 is likely. Investors have Dr Christopher Masters to thank for the gains. Since his appointment as chief executive in 1989, he has pared down the management structure and forced the distribution business to concentrate on serving dedicated customers such as Marks & Spencer.