TOOL HIRE TOP TEN 2012 continued
One of the reasons for the decline in profitability at Hire Station is the costs of expanding the footprint of its specialist businesses; the pipe-threading
business MEP has opened new locations in Southampton and Aberdeen, while ESS two new locations in Runcorn
and Scotland, as well as moving into larger premises in two other locations. Hire Station’s John Singleton stresses that ESS is growing very quickly in response to expanding demand. As for the traditional tool hire business, Hire Station is making some progress in pushing ahead rates, but John Singleton says they still remain under pressure. The company continues to invest in its fleet with capital expenditure up 30% to £6m in the current financial year. Like his competitors, however, John Singleton is very conscious of the inflation in equipment prices as well as, of course, the other inflationary factors in the economy.
Hire Station’s ‘virtual hire’ operation now has 40 partners including Homebase and Argos, and is described as making sound progress. John Singleton affirms that he is confident Hire Station will have a better second half.
A-PLANT TOOL HIRE Chief Executive (A-Plant)
Head Office
Telephone Number Website
Hire activities
Geographical coverage Status
COMMENT
Early December saw the publication of half year results of Ashtead Group. In the six months ended October 2011, the Group achieved record half year pre-tax profits of £84m (compared with £30.0m in 2010), with revenues up by 24% at £575.5m.
Of course, the majority of Ashtead’s activities are in the States and this impressive performance was primarily due to 25% growth in rental revenues at US subsidiary Sunbelt. Nevertheless A-Plant’s results showed a significant strengthening of its position with a rise in revenues of nearly 14% to £93.7m, which resulted in a 26% uplift in operating profits to £
5.3m.Ashtead’s Chief Executive, Geoff Drabble
36
commented “with our robust debt structure, substantial capacity to fund fleet growth and the well-established momentum in the business, we now anticipate a full year profit substantially ahead of our earlier expectations.” Analysts are now expecting Ashtead to produce pre-tax profits of just over £100m in the year ended 30 April 2012. The shares hit a year high of 226.7p on 29 December, valuing the company at £1.14 billion.
HIREBASE Hire Director
Head Office
Telephone Number Website
Hire activities Geographical coverage Status COMMENT Sat Dhaiwal
102 Dalton Avenue, Birchwood Park, Warrington WA3 6YE 01925 281000
www.aplant.com
A wide range of plant and tools, including lifting, surveying, drilling, surface preparation and dust extraction equipment National
Subsidiary of Ashtead Group plc, a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange
Adrian Watts confirms that Hirebase is progressing strongly as its expansion programme continues through the development of Hirebase outlets within the various UK merchanting operations owned by the Grafton Group. As well as its outlets within Buildbase, Hirebase now has 14 within Jackson Building Services and will open a further three in 2012, as well as planning to open further outlets within Buildbase and also expanding into Grafton’s Civils & Lintels business. The current expansion phase will take Hirebase to a total of 90 locations, all within Grafton’s various merchant sites.
The move to expanding Hirebase into the Civils & Lintels brand will bring the hirer into contact with larger construction customers and Hirebase is examining the possibility of developing its product offering towards larger equipment (up to six tonne) to meet the requirements of this customer base.
Hirebase has traditionally remained focused on the small/medium sized builders and Adrian Watts indicates that will remain the hirer’s core activity. He is not interested in pursuing national supply contracts. He describes 2011 as “an excellent year” for the company and clearly sees strong growth prospects through
expanding to meet the requirements of customers within Buildbase and the other Grafton subsidiaries in
Adrian Watts
Gemini One, 5520 Oxford Business South, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2LL 01865 871700
www.hirebase.co.uk Tools and small plant up to 7.5 tonne
From Sheffield to Crawley and Norwich to Exeter
Division of Buildbase, a subsidiary of Grafton Group plc (Irish-registered public company)
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