The chief executive of North East commercial vehicle hire group Redde Northgate has hailed the firm鈥檚 progress and its positive future, after seeing sales jump more than 40%.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Darlington-based firm said trading was ahead of board expectations for the year ended April 30 2021, gaining the full benefit of its merger with Redde for a full year for the first time.
Total statutory revenues climbed to 拢1.109bn, 42.4% higher than last year, while adjusted revenues - including exceptional costs 鈥 were 50.2% up to 拢879.7m.
Underlying operating profit was 拢105.5m, a rise of 42.8%.
In a Stock Exchange announcement, the firm said Northgate 海角视频&I and Northgate Spain revenue, excluding vehicle sales, was broadly flat at 拢311.6m and 拢205.5m, and included the impact of 拢3.4m of Covid-19 customer support packages in the first half year.
Redde revenue was 拢371.7m, a huge leap on 2020鈥檚 拢67.4m, when the year-end came shortly after the merger. Vehicle sales revenues saw a smaller increase of 18.6%, mainly due to higher 海角视频&I sales prices, driven by reduced supply from manufacturers and increased demand for used vehicles since the end of the first lockdown last summer.
Redde Northgate had set a merger integration savings target for the 2022 financial year of 拢15m, increased previously from 拢10m, and this was reached 10 months early at the end of June.
The strong performance mean the company also hiked its dividend 18% to 15.4p per share and CEO Martin Ward said the integrated company鈥檚 progress so far had been very positive.
He said: 鈥淭his year has been a challenging year but also one of exceptional progress against our Focus, Drive and Broaden strategic framework, and I am proud of our people and the way they responded to the pandemic.
鈥淟ast year we focused on the integration of the businesses following the merger. That work is largely complete, ahead of time, with 拢20.5m of cost savings secured. Our next strategic priority is to grow revenue under our Drive phase and to utilise the services and infrastructure platform we have built to extend our market reach.鈥
Mr Ward said the group had also made progress in several digitalisation projects, including the 海角视频 and Spain digital eAuction platform, developed alongside a 鈥榗lick and collect鈥 service which and saw more than 10,000 vehicles sold via the platforms in the year, up 67% year-on-year.
It has also created a new small claims system called Pilot to manage claims post accident whiplash reforms, a new traffic officer app to support Highways Agency traffic officers at the roadside and a new online claims portal to enable more efficient processing of claims.
Looking to the future, he said the firm is ready to help its customers make the transition to electric vehicles, bringing further EVs and alternative fuel vehicles onto the fleet in the current financial year, taking current levels to 2,300 electric, LPG and hybrid vehicles.
He added that a highlight for the combined businesses was how its enhanced, combined capabilities, infrastructure and tech platforms were attracting significant tenders from leading insurers, which could come online in the next financial year.
He added: 鈥淚f you think of digitisation most customers think how can we drive down costs and make that online journey. We all run our lives of our mobile phone and we have got a strong proposition, so that鈥檚 driving insurers to our table, and we are very encouraged by that.
"We are very very optimistic on the future of our proposition.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a couple of months of trading (in the new financial year) and we are very encouraged by what we are seeing and we are clearly supporting that with the dividend payments we are making as well.鈥
