13.06.2024
Sales and profit boost for Ainscough
UK based rental company Ainscough Crane Hire has published its full year financial results, achieving its the first profitable year since 2018.
Revenues for the year to the end of September increased 21 percent over the prior year to £116.8 million with a pre-tax profit of £7.6 million, compared to a pre-tax loss in 2022 of £3.1 million. We have yet to see the full accounts, when they are posted we will update this item if there is anything more to add.
The company statement said: “The revenue growth reflects improved market conditions, particularly for infrastructure activity, combined with increased hire rates and cost controls which helped to partially off-set the inflationary cost environment across the UK economy.”
Chief executive Peter Gibbs added: “Following a number of challenging years for Ainscough, and the industry as a whole, it is pleasing to see a return to profitability despite the cost inflation pressures that we have all experienced. It confirms my belief that a sustainable, safety-led approach to lifting is something that is valued by our customer base and we are proud to lead in these areas.”
Vertikal Comment
No matter how you look at it this a very good result for Ainscough and hopefully also reflects well on the state of and potential for the entire UK crane industry.
Looking at the longer term revenue trend this year represents a growth of 57 percent over the past four years, although during that period the pre-tax losses amounted to a grand total of £11.8 million. If the company repeats or improves on the latest results, it will be nicely back in the black for the five year period.
In case you ask Peter Gibbs took over as
chief executive in 2020, having joined the company as chief operating in April 2018.
ghost
@AA72. A crane hire company should be run by someone with a bit of common sense, knowledge of the industry and an understanding of people in the industry. That doesn’t mean a university education is a prerequisite.
Present CEO excepted, Ainscough has had some pretty shocking and arrogant senior management in recent years, responsible for some pretty poor decisions. Workforce upheavals with the industrial action some years ago and a generally poor attitude towards its employees, lack of investment in its smaller cranes, (who runs 18 year old cranes for crying out loud?!) and poor decisions regarding growth through acquisition hasn’t done the business any favours.
There are companies out there run by people who don’t have higher education and letters after their name that have modern fleets and equipment, decently paid employees and have a good customer base through organic growth because they provide a good quality service that overrides the bottom line cost, therefore growing the mantra of a good service because the job is done right first time instead of paying twice and it costing more overall.
AA72
But...I thought a Crane Hire company should only be run by crane hire men???