29.11.2012

Vp edges up

UK based rental company Vp, owner of UK Forks and Hire Station has announced first half revenues up two percent to £84 million.
At the same time pre-tax profits improved around five percent to £10.5 million. Capital expenditure in the period was £12 million

Profits at the telehandler division - UK Forks were flat at £1 million on revenues up 9.5 percent to £7 million. The equipment business acquired from Balfour Beatty in July has now been integrated and the business is expecting to continue through the second half of the year at similar levels.

Hire Station, the general rental division saw revenues flat at £29 million, while profits jumped 17 percent to £1.7 million.

Chairman Jeremy Pilkington said: "The challenging trading conditions that we face in many of our markets have not abated to any significant degree and we therefore believe that these results represent an excellent achievement. Every business except, as anticipated, Airpac Bukom, held or improved profits in the period. Profit margins rose to 13 percent and return on capital employed was marginally ahead at 13.2 percent.”

“The Group's strong operating cash flow of £18.6 million enabled us to manage net borrowings to £50.1 million at the period end, after capital investment on fleet of £12.6 million and the two acquisitions from Balfour Beatty Group Limited in July 2012 for £4.1 million.”

Vertikal Comment

This is a very reasonable result from Vp which has seen its telehandler business recover strongly in the past year or two and now stabilise at those levels. The Hire station rental business has taken on more access equipment is also holding its own and managing to wring out some decent profit improvements from static sales levels.

Given the sluggish summer that many saw in the UK it is encouraging to see some really quite encouraging numbers.