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A North East van hire company has announced a 5% rise in group revenues despite the impact of Covid-19, thanks to its merger with a fleet management firm.

Darlington based Northgate, which has rental operations across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and Spain, merged with Redde Plc in February to create Redde Northgate Plc, a £1bn company which expected to make to pre-tax cost synergies of at least £10m a year.

A month later, however, the firm announced a series of measures to protect the business, its staff and customers during the Corovirus pandemic.

Now the firm has issued a pre-close trading statement which reveals that, based on unaudited results, Redde Northgate group revenues were 5% higher than the prior year, attributing the increase to Redde’s performance,

Revenues at the Northgate business, however, were 4% lower than the prior year, including the impact of Covid-19 in March and April.

The firm told shareholders that it is still too early to say how ongoing revenue, earnings and cash will be impacted by Covid-19, but that it is carrying out detailed modelling of various scenarios, which are updated regularly.

It said actions it has taken since the start of the Coronavirus crisis have included implementing social distancing in branches and offices, furloughing employees across all areas of the business and limiting capital expenditure on new fleet.

Voluntary pay reductions have also been made across the board, senior leadership team and managers, while other cost control measures including a freeze on recruitment and pay reviews has also been introduced.