29.05.2012

UK Forks up 23%

The UK Forks division of rental company Vp saw revenues rise by 23% last year with a strong rise in profits.

Full year revenues for the 12 months to the end of March were £13.2 million, over 23 percent up on the prior year, while operating profits climbed almost 37 percent to £1.5 million. The company also almost doubled its capital expenditure to £8.6 million in the face of very high first half utilisation. The net result was an increase in fleet size of 14 percent.

A statement from UK Forks said: “We have continued to secure new business relationships whilst maintaining our key house-building and construction accounts. The business has also made good inroads to the infrastructure segment over the last 12 months."

"UK Forks has an excellent industry reputation for quality of both service and equipment and these attributes are serving the business well as customers become increasingly discerning in the tougher market. Costs, particularly on new machines, spares and transportation, have escalated and the impact of these increases has been mitigated to some extent by securing hire rate increases for our services.”

“Trading since the start of the new calendar year has been slower to pick up than anticipated but we expect the business to make further progress in the new financial year.”

Other parts of Vp also did very well the general rental division - Hire Station increased revenues by 13 percent to a record £60.3 million, following a strong first half, while operating profits grew 10 percent to £3.3 million. The division reduced its capital expenditure by 21 percent to £8.1 million.

TPA, the temporary track roadways saw revenue increase five percent to £14.7 million, while profits dropped back 15 percent to £1.2 million.
Of the other divisions Groundforce improved revenues 10 percent while profits remained flat and Airpac Bukom Oilfield services increased revenues 12 percent while profits jumped 33 percent and finally Torrent Trackside increased revenues by 48 percent and profits by 38 percent.

Overall the company reported full year revenues or £163.6 million, up 16 percent on the year, while pre-tax profits climbed 25 percent to £15.3 million.

Chairman Jeremy Pilkington said: “I am very pleased to be able to report on another excellent performance, each of the group's businesses reported advances in revenue and all except one delivered profit growth. Our continuous and determined focus on quality of profits has enabled us to invest over £32 million in expanding and refreshing our rental fleet in the period, whilst holding year end debt at £40.4 million.”

“The strength of this year's results once again demonstrates the benefits of our well established strategy of focusing on specialist sectors where the group can command strong market positions. It is also a testament to the quality of leadership of our management team, which I believe to be the best in the industry.”

“The new financial year has started well, in line with our expectations. There will no doubt be further challenges and uncertainties, but we remain committed, and confident in our continued ability, to create opportunities and to deliver growth in shareholder value over the longer term.”

Vertikal Comment

This is an exceptional set of numbers from UK Forks as well as Hire Station and the group overall. The telehandler rental market has never been easy and requires a specialist touch to really excel at it. The market has certainly picked up over the past year or so, as house building expands again and telehandler usage creeps into new markets. However it is almost certain that UK Forks has also taken a larger share of the market this year.

Hire Station has not been a major player in the access market in the past, however this is changing fast as it invests significantly in the low level market – both powered and non-powered. Expect to see the company become a great deal more involved in the access market going forward.

All in all very positive news