Ashtead posts record first-half profit
Industrial equipment hire firm Ashtead today posted record first-half profit of £141m this morning, as it lifted profit expectations for the full year.
First-half profit for Ashtead, which makes 85 per cent of its revenue from US arm Sunbelt, was up 64 per cent from £84m over the same period last year.
Revenue over the six months to October came in at £680.4m, up 17 per cent year on year.
Ashtead chief executive Geoff Drabble said: “With this momentum clearly established in the business we now anticipate a full year profit ahead of our earlier expectations.”
He added that the firm remained “well-placed” to see growth over the medium term, from either a structural shift towards companies renting equipment rather than owning it, or economic recovery.