Hewden’s losses grow

Turnover dropped nearly 15% to £101.9m in 2012.

The bottom line was a pre-tax loss of £12.2m, which follows a £3.9m loss in 2011.

The loss included a £4.5m exceptional charge for the introduction of a new Microsoft Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning system, which is expected to save the business more than £2m a year.

"Despite a decline in hire revenues year on year, mainly from the construction sector, Hewden grew market shares in other sectors it operates in," the board said.

Hewden was a publicly-quoted company until 2001 when Caterpillar dealer Finning bought it for £322m. In 2010, having lost £40m on it in the previous two years, Finning sold Hewden to venture capitalists Sun European Partners for £110m. Hewden’s tool hire, tower cranes and hoist division had already been divested in previous years.

Since then, Hewden has been rationalising its Cat-heavy fleet, reducing it from 35,000 items to 25,000, and standardising over core machines.

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