HSS hails strong growth and higher profits

HSS Hire said strong organic growth across its entire business had helped it increase revenues last year by 24% to £226 million, with EBITDA profits up 36% at £55 million.

The £226 million revenue figure includes around £10 million from UK Platforms – the business acquired on 28 June 2013 – as well as a full year contribution of £8 million from Abird, which was bought on 28 October 2012. Strip out these acquisitions and 2013 revenues still grew by around 15%, outstripping UK market growth.

Alan Peterson, chairman of HSS, said it had been a strong year for the company; “The team achieved strong organic growth across all our customer groups, product ranges, geographies and services; this was complemented by our strategy to acquire promising specialist businesses whilst also reinvesting in our future growth.

“We are confident that we will continue to enhance value by achieving our target of occupying number one or two positions in our key markets. At the same time, we will continue to monitor opportunities to add further growth and value through selective acquisitions.”

In addition to its acquisitions strategy – which has seen the addition of Abird, UK Platforms, TecServ and Apex Generators over the past 18 months – HSS is focusing on what it described as resilient hire markets in the ‘fit-out’, ‘maintain’ and ‘operate’ markets.

Chris Davies, chief executive officer at HSS, said he was pleased with the financial performance in 2013; “This strong performance is the result of our highly diversified customer base and focus on growth over the long-term - underpinned by a consistent strategy of optimising the network, driving operational efficiency, investing in people and systems and delivering added-value services.”