For the six months to 30th September 2018, Speedy Hire made a pre-tax profit of £13.2m, up from £6.0m the previous year, on revenue up 6% to £194.6m.
Speedy has been targeting SME customers for new business, particularly since the collapse of Carillion, which was a major client. “I am pleased to report that we have seen strong growth in SME revenues during the period following introduction of our same day service promise,” said chief executive Russell Down. “This was originally launched in London, but subsequently extended nationwide on 1st May 2018, and has now been strengthened to incorporate the option of a four-hour delivery window in the London area.”
Speedy’s mobile app is also being used more and more by customers.
“In addition we have invested in telemarketing activity and targeted sales activity through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning,” the chief executive said. “This activity has resulted in a notable increase in the number of customers trading with us during the period; the consequent increase in revenue has more than offset revenue lost following the liquidation of Carillion earlier this year.”
Speedy has also been assiduously monitoring customer satisfaction.
“To date we have conducted over 300,000 surveys and in the period have instigated root cause analysis into the areas where we do not meet expectations,” Russell Down said. “In August we achieved our highest ever satisfaction score with 92% of customers reporting that they were satisfied or highly satisfied with our performance. We will be expanding our surveys to monitor the performance of internal functions during the second half in order to further enhance the customer experience.”
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